Her Shield, His Sword
by Kyu No Ken
Summary: He is her shield, her protection while she is his sword, his drive to live. NarutoXErza. Ch. 7 is updated!
1. Chapter 1

Just something that has been nagging in the back of my mind ever since I've began reading stories between this two series; which brought some inspiration for the beginning chapters of this story. I must warn you, this story will not be worked as much as my other one, but still, let me know what you guys think.

.

.

.

.

Her Pain & Loneliness

"_**What do you mean Ero-sennin is dead!" demanded a blonde haired teen no older than sixteen wearing an orange jacket with black extending from around the neck and shoulders, down the front and sleeves, the pants matching the orange part of the jacket, a black headband protector wrapped around his head as he slammed his hands onto the table, making the people watching the scene unfold jump from blonde's outburst. His blue eyes glaring angrily at the being in front of him, being a green toad with white hair styled in somewhat of a mohawk, very thick eyebrows and a small goatee, wearing a high-collared cape.**_

_**The toad just sighed tiredly as he closed his eyes and lowered his head;**_

"_**Naruto-chan . . . I'm afraid that that's not all I've to tell you . . ." spoke the toad as he opened his eyes and looked at whiskered teen in front of him, "Konoha . . . is no more."**_

_**A couple of feet from the two, a young red haired girl with brown eyes gasped in horror as she heard what the toad had said. Her heart quenching as she watched the blonde drop to his knees with his hands still holding onto the table while his head dropped between his arms, his shoulders shaking as he tried his best not to cry in front of the entire guild.**_

_**Then suddenly, his shoulders stopped shaking and slowly rose his head, his gaze meeting the toads, causing the amphibian to flinch as he saw the blonde's piercing gaze. A feeling of malice and hate coming off of the blonde in waves as his features got wilder;**_

"_**Who did it?" questioned/growled the blonde in a cold voice, his eyes full of anger as they turned crimson with a slit iris. But the toad didn't answer right away, causing Naruto's anger to rise even more, "WHO!"**_

"_**It was Pain, the God of Akatzuki," answered Pa.**_

_**The blonde's grasp on the table became even tighter that the table itself gave away as it shattered in his hands, causing the toad to jump off onto the ground.**_

"_**There's more grave news I'm afraid," announced the toad, "The true leader of Akatzuki has revealed himself, claiming himself to be Uchiha Madara, declaring war on the rest of the nations with already having captured seven of the nine tailed beasts!"**_

_**Silence ensued within the guild as everyone's eyes were focused on the blonde.**_

"_**What will you do now, Naruto?" questioned the master of the guild. **__**His face was stern and he was balding on his head, despite his impressive mustache. His black eyes steeled as he faced another member of their group. He had the cloak of a Guild master over his shoulders and his aura screamed for both respect, and caring.**_

_**The blonde began to take deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down, and it seemed to work as the malice feeling began to fade away till it completely disappeared. Once Naruto had regained his composure, the blonde slowly stood up and turned towards the toad. His eyes that once shone with life and brightness were now cold and dead;**_

"_**Pa . . . take me back to our world," declared the blonde, shocking everyone, but he ignored them as he continued, "If those bastards want the Nine Tails so bad, I'll bring the battle to them."**_

"_**Naruto! Have you gone mad!" shouted Pa, "Jiraiya-chan was hard pressed against Pain, even in sage mode and ended up being killed! I will not break Jiraiya-chan's promise to protect you!"**_

"_**And while you and everyone else keeps hiding me, many people are losing their lives to these fuckers!" shouted the blonde back, "I'm sick and fucking tired of everyone treating me as if I'm weak! Tsunade thought it was best for me to hide and look what happened, Konoha is gone and I didn't do a fucking thing to stop it!" calming down once more the blonde stared at the toad elder, "Pa, I know Ero-sennin was going to start my training in senjutsu and if I'm to have a chance of stopping them, I'm going to need all the training I can get."**_

"_**We'll go with you and fight alongside you, Naruto!" shouted a teen with pink hair as he pumped his fist into the air with a blue flying taking cat hovering above him;**_

"_**AYE!"**_

"_**Anyone who messes with a member of our family, messes with the whole guild of Fairy Tail," declared a black haired teen who seem to have a problem keeping his clothes on**_

"_**It's the man's job to look out for his comrades!" followed a muscular guy with silver hair spiky hair**_

_**Then everyone in the guild shouted their support.**_

"_**I'm not bringing any of you guys with me," announced Naruto with seriousness, causing everyone to atop their cheering and look at him in disbelief. Then a girl wearing a black top with a purple mini skirt and similar hair color to the muscular guy marched forward and grabbed the blonde by the neck of his jacket;**_

"_**Are you an idiot! You'll be killed! Is that what you're looking for!" shouted the girl, but Naruto kept his gaze;**_

"_**This fight is personal Mirajane, I will not involve others in this war," emotionlessly said the blonde, causing the girl to growl in anger and was about to punch him until her master stopped her;**_

"_**Stop at once Mirajane!" ordered the master, causing the silver haired girl to look at her master;**_

"_**But Master Makarov –" **_

"_**Naruto has already made his choice and we must respect it," said the master with authority**_

_**Mirajane looked at her master with wide eyes before she shut them, refusing to shed tears in front of everyone as she shoved the blonde back and walked back to her spot, next to her brother's side.**_

"_**Are you positive about this Naruto-chan?" asked Pa, hoping that the kid would see reason, but only saw rage and determination.**_

_**Nodding his head, the toad silently jumped onto his shoulder and got ready to perform a reverse summon, until a voice stopped them;**_

"_**So that's it, you're just going to leave us like that," stated the red-headed girl as she approached the blonde with a face devoid of any emotion, "Did anything we did together mean anything to you!" but Naruto kept his silence and got slapped hard across the face, "Answer me damn it!" by now, tears had begun to fall from her left eye.**_

_**Naruto didn't say anything, but suddenly, he quickly enveloped her in a tight hug, causing her tears to shed even more as she hugged him with all her strength.**_

"_**I promise to come back, even if I have to crawl out of hell to do so," whispered the blonde into her ear, "Take care Erza-chan."**_

_**She let out a gasp before she felt a hit on her neck and everything turned black.**_

- ) \ / ( -

Erza suddenly woke up with a startle gasp.

Ruffling her sheets, Erza pushed them away slightly as she tried to gain control of her trembling hands. Sitting up straight in her bed, she looked around her darkened room, only to realize how _empty_ it felt. Or rather, how _empty_ she was feeling. Then she looked at her calendar and recognized what day it was;

"It's that time of the year," sighed the red-head depressingly

For the past three years the same thing had occurred around this time, each and every day of the week before, during, and after October 10 she would have _that _dream. The dream of when HE left everyone, left her, in order to go fight a war and avenge those he cared for. Not realizing that the people he left behind cared for him as well, that she car – longed for him.

Soon, tears began to develop on her left eye, but she quickly wiped them away as she refused to cry for him. Seeing as she wasn't going to get much sleep, she got out of her bed and got dressed. Wearing a white blouse, blue skirt and black boots before she re-quipped her armor. She was about to walk out of her form till she saw a pendant resting on top of her cabinet. A green crystal attached with a black string rested there, a reminder of the promise that it was made to her three years ago. Shaking her head, she went towards her cabinet and grabbed the necklace, carefully putting it on as it rested on top of her armor.

She looked in the mirror for a couple of minutes before she walked out of her dorm.

**~ ' ~**

For the whole day, Erza had avoided the guild, not wanting to step in and be reminded of that night. Even after three years, the pain it caused never went away. Although she was thankful that her family knew to leave her alone on this day, for she had taken it the hardest, but like her, everyone hated this time of year, for it took away everyone's spirit.

Arriving upon the beach, Erza took off her boots and walked along the sandy road, her sight never leaving the setting sun, reflecting its light over the ocean, mesmerizing her as unconsciously came to a stop. She didn't know how long she had been watching, for she couldn't sense the person approaching her;

"Erza-chan."

The red-head turned around to find her former rival turned best friend. After he left, the two had become close, comforting one another.

"Mirajane, what are you doing here?"

Mirajane had changed over the three years, not just in attire, but in looks as well. Her long, white hair, which gets slightly curly at the ends, with two bangs framing her face and reaching down to her ample chest, and whose most distinctive trait is a short, upward ponytail obtained by gathering and tying the hair covering her forehead. The attire consisted of a long, sleeveless maroon dress. The chest is adorned by a large, pink bow, and similarly colored trimmings frame the rather ample neckline, acting as straps, and circle around the waist. The pleated skirt of the dress reaches down to her ankles while wearing high-heeled shoes that match her dress, has a small chain necklace with a blue oval gem attached to it circling her neck, and sports a bracelet made of white flowers circling her right wrist.

Giving her friend a soft smile, she replied;

"Like you, I didn't want to be around the guild today, it just brings a bad memory around this time of year."

Erza didn't say a word as she just turned back to watch the sunset, but if one were to look closely, you could see her shoulders beginning to shake a little.

Concern growing inside her, Mirajane approached her friend and gently placed a comforting hand on her shoulder;

"Erza-chan, are you alright?"

Erza just nodded her head without turning around;

"Of course I'm alright! It's not like I care if that bastard left all of us to persue revenge," answered the red head loudly, "He chose to leave us so why should I care of where he is or if he's injured or if he's even still alive! Why should I care if ever comes back! WHY SHOULD I CARE!"

Then slowly, Erza turned towards Mirajane, her left eye was red and puffy from the tears that kept rolling down her cheek. Mirajane wasn't faring well either as her eyes were shedding tears as well and without a word, the silver-haired girl pull Erza in a tight hug, which she gladly returned as she cried her heart out - all the anger, the pain, the loneliness, and the love she felt – letting it all out as she held onto her friend;

"Why Mirajane? Why I can't forget him if he caused me so much pain!" her cries were muffled as she buried her face in Mira's dress. Mira just held her tighter as she cried along her friend;

"It's because you love him Erza," she answered back through her tears, "You still love him."

Unknown to them, Master Makarov watched helplessly as his children cried. He let out a sigh as he looked towards the stars that began to appear above;

"Naruto, my boy, wherever you are, know that everyone here misses you and Erza still loves you with all her heart," said the master as he turned around and headed back towards the guild, leaving the two girls by themselves the sun began to disappear in the horizon.

.

.

.

.

Again, this a story that has been bothering for quite some time, and I'm already working on the second chapter, but after that, I have to think on how this story will flow while I continue to work on the chapter for Four Dragons.

Until then. Take care.


	2. Chapter 2

I apologize for my grammar, the truth is . . . I was drinking while writing this chapter as everyone can see . . . . it was chaotic, haha. I made some corrections, hopefully it's better now.

Also, I added a little small scene to the chapter.

Here's the second chapter of the story. I do apologize if the chapter seems to be a . . . bit boring, but I wanted to explain as to how he ended up in Fairy Tail, what has he been doing after he left the guild.

Other than that, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

.

.

.

His Pain & Lament

.

.

.

.

_**Naruto's dream/P.O.V**_

"_**What do you mean Ero-sennin is dead!" I demanded as my hands were slammed onto the table, startling everyone around me, but that didn't matter as my eyes were glaring angrily at the being in front of me, a green toad with white hair styled in somewhat of a mohawk, very thick eyebrows and a small goatee, wearing a high-collared cape.**_

_**Pa just sighed tiredly as he closed his eyes and lowered his head;**_

"_**Naruto-chan . . . I'm afraid that that's not all I've to tell you . . ." spoke the toad as he opened his eyes and looked at me directly, "Konoha . . . is no more."**_

_**Everything suddenly stopped moving around me as the news hit me. I couldn't believe it. The village was destroyed and I didn't do a thing to prevent it. My legs were shaking so bad that I had to drop to my knees while still holding onto the table as my I lowered my head between my arms, my shoulders shaking as I tried my best to hold back the tears, refusing to cry in front of everyone.**_

_**I could feel the chakra of the Nine Tails slowly coursing through as my anger rose, alternating my looks as they took a wilder look. Then surprisingly, I managed to get shoulders stop shaking and slowly I lifted my head, meeting the elder's gaze, causing the amphibian to flinch when looked at me in the eyes;**_

"_**Who did it?" I questioned/growled in a cold voice, but the elder didn't answer right away, causing my anger to rise even more, "WHO!"**_

"_**It was Pain, the God of Akatzuki," answered Pa.**_

_**My grasp on the table became even tighter that the table itself gave away as it shattered in his hands, causing the toad to jump off onto the ground.**_

"_**There's more grave news I'm afraid," I heard him say, "The true leader of Akatzuki has revealed himself, claiming himself to be Uchiha Madara, declaring war on the rest of the nations with already having captured seven of the nine tailed beasts!"**_

_**Silence ensued within the guild as I could feel everyone's eyes were focused on me.**_

"_**What will you do now, Naruto?" I heard the master say, but I dint turn around to address him.I began to take deep breaths once again as I could feel my anger growing to higher levels along with the power of the Kyuubi flooding me, trying to vanish it right away. Luckily it worked, a**__**s I could feel it's chakra receding till it completely disappeared. Once I had regained his composure, I slowly stood up to my feet while turning towards the toad;**_

"_**Pa . . . take me back to our world," I told Pa, shocking everyone within the guild, hell even that asshole Laxus looked shocked, but I ignored them, I only had one thing in mind, "If those bastards want the Nine Tails so bad, I'll bring the battle to them."**_

"_**Naruto! Have you gone mad!" shouted Pa, "Jiraiya-chan was hard pressed against Pain, even in sage mode and ended up being killed! I will not break Jiraiya-chan's promise to protect you!"**_

"_**And while you and everyone else keeps hiding me, many people are losing their lives to these fuckers!" I shouted back, "I'm sick and fucking tired of everyone treating me as if I'm weak! Tsunade thought it was best for me to hide and look what happened, Konoha is gone and I didn't do a fucking thing to stop it!" then calmly I spoke once more, "Pa, I know Ero-sennin was going to start my training in senjutsu and if I'm to have a chance of stopping them, I'm going to need all the training I can get."**_

"_**We'll go with you and fight alongside you, Naruto!" shouted Natsu as he pumped his fist into the air with a blue flying taking cat hovering above him;**_

"_**AYE!"**_

"_**Anyone who messes with a member of our family, messes with the whole guild of Fairy Tail," declared Gray as he lost his clothes . . . again. **_

"_**It's the man's job to look out for his comrades!" followed Elfman**_

_**Then everyone in the guild shouted their support.**_

_**At this point, I could feel the guilt building of what I planned to do, but it had to be done. As much as they wanted to help me, I will not involve them in the chaos that is the shinobi world.**_

"_**I'm not bringing any of you guys with me," I commented with seriousness, causing everyone to stop their cheering, looking at me with disbelief. Then I saw Mirajane, pissed off as hell as she marched towards me and grabbed me by the scruff of my jacket;**_

"_**Are you an idiot! You'll be killed! Is that what you're looking for!" she shouted at me, but I managed to maintain my composure;**_

"_**This fight is personal Mirajane, I will not involve others in this war," I said emotionlessly, I could see the hurt flash in her eyes, but it quickly went away as it was replaced with anger as she growled with her fist cocked back, but the Majorov stopped her;**_

"_**Stop at once Mirajane!" ordered the master, causing the silver haired girl to look at her master;**_

"_**But Master Makarov –" **_

"_**Naruto has already made his choice and we must respect it," said the master with authority**_

_**Mirajane looked at her master with wide eyes before she shut them, refusing to shed tears in front of everyone as she shoved me back and walked back to her spot, next to her brother's side.**_

"_**Are you positive about this Naruto-chan?" I heard asked Pa, hoping that I would change my mind, but my mind was already made up as I nodded my head. Reluctantly, Pa jumped onto his shoulder and got ready to perform a reverse summon . . . until HER voice reached my ears, almost destroying any resolve I had about leaving;**_

"_**So that's it, you're just going to leave us like that," stated Erza as she as she approached me, my heart breaking as I saw her with a face devoid of any emotion, but the hurt was clearly visible in her eyes, "Did anything we did together mean anything to you!" but I didn't reply back, hurting her even more as she slapped hard across the face . . .**_

**~ ' ~**

Eye lids were shot open, revealing ocean blue eyes as they adjusted to the light that was shining down upon his face. A twenty year old Naruto Namikaze groggily sat up on his bed, rubbing his eyes as he tried to get rid of his drowsiness. But in reality, he was trying to shake off the dream he just had;

"_It's that time of year already,_" thought the blonde somberly, not needing a calendar to tell him what day it was, since the day of his birth, October ten has been a day he had come to despise, even come to hate after what happened on his birthday three years ago. His eyes flashing with pain as he thought of her;

"_Erza . . ._"

Every year – before, during or after october tenth – he would feel empty on the inside. He would go around through the war ridden lands of the shinobi nations in search of battle, in hopes of relinquishing the feeling he felt, but deep down he knew that wasn't impossible, not after he had abandoned everyone back in Fairy Tail, after he had abandoned the Queen of the Fairies.

Staring out onto the sunrise, he could not help but remember back to where it all started;

**~ ' ~** **Flashback ~ ' ~**

_It had been a week after Naruto had confronted the Immortals of Akatuziki and managed to kill Kakuzu with his new jutsu. However, the news of the Akatzuki majority number of tail beasts was unnerving, and now, standing in front of the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade Senju with Jiraiya beside her, with a sour look on his face as she had told him what she and Jiraiya, along with the shinobi council, had decided to prevent the Akatzuki to prevent the Kyuubi;_

"_Tell me you're kidding ba-chan!" growled Naruto as he glared at the Hokage, but the Hokage just sat there with a stone expression on her face;_

"_I'm not joking brat, it has been decided that you're going to be sent into hiding with the toads while we deal with the Akatzuki," debriefed Tsunade without argument_

"_That's bullshit!" shouted Naruto, but a slam of her first onto the desk stopped any other outbursts he might've had;_

"_Kami's sake, open your eyes Naruto!" shouted the Hokage back, "This isn't some fairy tale, this is reality! They are after you because of the Kyuubi and they will not stop at nothing in order to get it! Or did you forget what they did to your friend Gaara back in the sand village! You're not strong enough to face them, damn it!"_

_Naruto just stared at his mother-figure with shocked eyes, not believing what he just heard._

_The toad sage tried to defuse the tension as he approached the blonde;_

"_Naruto, it is true that we are sending you with the toads in order to hide you," admitted Jiraiya, "But there's another motive as to why Tsunade and I want to send you there."_

"_And what would this reason be, Jiraiya-sensei?" asked a very calmly blonde_

_Both knew right away that when Naruto was very calm, it only meant that he was extremely mad._

"_I talked to the toad elders and both have agreed in teaching you senjutsu," the blonde grew confuse at the announcement._

"_Senjutsu? What in the blue hell is that?" asked Naruto_

"_Senjutsu__ refers to a specialized field of techniques that allows the user to sense and then gather the __natural energy__ around a person. A senjutsu practitioner can then learn to draw the energy of nature inside of him or her and blend it with their own __chakra__, adding a new dimension of power to the sage's chakra, resulting in the creation of "__senjutsu chakra__". This chakra cannot be seen by anyone other than those who have been trained in senjutsu," Naruto's eyes widen at this information, "This new chakra enables the user to enter an empowered state called __Sage Mode__, which can then drastically increase the strength of all ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu."_

"_And you want me to learn that?" asked an astonished Naruto, only to receive a silent nod from the sage._

_Jiraiya was about to talk, until a quake was felt through the village. The three of them rushed towards the window only to find a huge cloud of smoke coming from the northern wall._

_Naruto heard rushing footsteps coming from the hallway, heading their way as a jonin rushed through;_

"_Lady Hokage! We are being attacked by a member of the Akatzuki!"_

_Both Sannin's eyes widen in shock, but Naruto's face was one of anger;_

"_No way in hell I'm going to run away!" growled the blonde as he tried to rush towards the door and meet the threat, but he didn't make as he didn't see the coming strike to back of his head._

"_Forgive me Naruto," muttered Tsunade with a solemn look. Then her gaze shifted towards the toad sage, giving her a silent nod._

"_Why . . . baa-chan . . ." groaned Naruto as he struggled to stay conscious._

_Jiraiya approached the semi-unconscious blonde and pulled out a paint brush, quickly drawing the seal for reverse summoning, since he couldn't take Naruto himself due to him staying with the slug princess to battle the enemy. After the drawn seal was done, Jiraiya took a few steps back and quickly began to make hand signs as he began to mold his chakra. Unfortunately for him, the Hokage tower was targeted for an attack, as it hit directly where the Hokage's office was in, causing the toad sage to mess up on the hand sequence and activate the seal as it began to glow._

_Naruto's last image before darkness took him was the look of both sannins having a look of horror in their faces as they both reached out for him, in an attempt to save him._

_Slowly, opening his eyes, he could see through his blurry vision that he was in a place he didn't recognized with many people surrounding him, but what had his attention as his vision had readjusted was a red head girl with brown eyes and her hair tied in a ponytail, looking at him with concern and curiosity;_

"_Beautiful," muttered the blonde before he passed out again._

**~ ' ~ End Flashback ~ ' ~**

Naruto chuckled at the memory of what happened after. Despite being unconscious, Erza had still bashed his skull into the ground, as she was not used to someone calling her that, since most of the guild had some sort of fear due to her strictness. At first, the two would clash from their disagreements, but then, he got a real close look at her. He saw the hidden pain, the loneliness she felt within her.

For six months, the blonde was in Earthland and couldn't help but feel that he was in heaven.

During those six months, Naruto got to know most of the members in the guild and without question; they accepted him as their own, even if Natsu's constant challenges were a bit annoying, but he wouldn't change it for the world. It was alien to him at the beginning, since his sixteen years of life, he had known nothing but hate and scorn from the people of Konoha, and yet, in a single day, he had found the acceptance of others. It was so surreal until Master Makorov had explained it him that almost every member in the guild has had a trouble past and found a place to call their nakama and place to call home.

Those six months seemed like a dream. He could be himself, he wasn't scorned or hated for being alive, and he didn't have to worry about nothing in general. He was free.

However, during that time, Erza slowly lowered her walls as she began to trust him little by little. At first they could be seen in the bar in the guild hall conversing or outside sparring one another. Then it went to both of them going to missions together, to finally being seeing together, inseparable at the guild or around the town of Magnolia, either hugging or holding hands.

When he was around Erza, all the years of hell he lived were instantly washed away. With every kiss, every hug, every touch he got from her made him feel like he mattered. Sure the guild made him feel like home, but with Erza, it was different. She made him feel like he mattered to her only. The blonde then remembered how nervous he was when he wanted to tell Titania of how he felt towards her, but due to how his life was, he didn't want to be hurt. Thankfully, the old guild master assured him that she wouldn't turn him down and right he was when right after telling her, the red haired girl hugged him fiercely and kissed him with passion. That night had been magical to him, his mind already made up concerning himself and his scarlet girl.

**~ ' ~ Flashback ~ ` ~**

_Naruto and Erza were sitting on the bed, their nude bodies covered by the blanket they had shared for the night, resting after expressing their love as they watched the full moon hang high in the sky through the window, their naked bodies pressing together as Erza leaned against her blonde's chest while his arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her close towards him. Both of them not saying a word as words were not necessary at the moment._

"_Naruto-kun," muttered the red head softly_

"_Hmm?"_

"_Promise me that you will never leave me," said Erza as she shifted in her position so she could look at him in the eye._

_Naruto looked down at her with a surprised expression, but the his gaze softened;_

"_I promise Erza-chan, I'll stay with you always," said the blonde, causing her to smile brightly before she leaned back against his chest once again and rested her head on his bare shoulder, "And no matter what, I'll always come back to you."_

_Letting out a content sigh, she softly placed her hands on his forearms;_

"_Then I'll be here," she said, causing Naruto to look down at her with a raised eyebrow._

"_I'll be here," she repeated as turned towards him_

"_Why?"_

"_I'll be here waiting for you," said Erza a she gazed into his blue eyes, "Every time you come back, you'll find me."_

_Naruto could see the love she felt for him and made his heart fill with happiness at the thought of finally finding someone to be with;_

"_You promise?" asked the blonde softly as Erza reached for his cheek and softly stroke it with her hand_

"_I promise," assured the red head as the two closed the gap and shared a kiss through the night._

**~ ` ~ End Flashback ~ ` ~ **

Then a frown came to his lips as he reached for the cord around his neck, grasping a ring with a scarlet diamond firmly in his hand.

He had broken the promise he made to her.

A couple of days after that night, the blonde planned to propose to her . . . But reality had shattered the fairy tale as Fukasaku had finally found him. Being reminded that because of the tail beast within him. He had lost both his grandparent/parent figures, along with all those he came to consider his family. That he was never going know peace as long as he was cursed and always being sought after for the being that was sealed inside of him.

Then quickly, Naruto shook his head, trying to shake off the look of everyone's faces as they looked at him with disbelief, anger and betrayal in their eyes, but the look in her eyes was the one that hurt him the most, it was the pain in her eyes that he caused that made him wish to be dead.

Sighing, he got up his bed and walked towards his equipment, thinking of everything that has happened during these past three years as he reached out and put on his net shirt, covering the many scars he had gotten throughout the battles in these past three years.

After leaving the guild and arriving at Mt. Myobuko, Fukasaku told him of the code that Jiraiya had encoded on his back and immediately began his training in senjutsu. The training was hard and brutal but he had exceeded where Jiraiya had failed. It took him almost exactly six months to fully master senjutsu, but during his training, Fukasaku was informing him of everything that had happened during his absence in the elemental nations. Apparently after the fall of Konoha, Sasuke had turn on the snake bastard and killed him, but he didn't leave empty handed. After having killed Orochimaru, the traitorous teammate of his had freed some of the snake's prisoners and created his own little team and one thing in mind: Finding and killing his older brother, Itachi Uchiha.

The two Uchiha brothers did clash, but Sasuke came out victorious in the end due to Itachi being close to death's doors from an unknown illness and by using his Magenkyo Sharingan nymerous times. Meanwhile, the remaining kages had a meeting in some samurai village, which was when the self-proclaimed Madara Uchiha appeared and declared war on the four villages. After the remaining Uchiha recovered from the battle against his brother, Sasuke had joined Madara's organization and was sent out to hunt the eight tail's container, who was the tag-team partner of the Raikage, Killer Bee. According to toad elder, Bee had an earlier confrontation with another member, Kisame Hoshigaki, also known as the "Monster of the Hidden Mist", being able to match the container blow for blow, until the Raikage had intervened in the battle and both used their tag-team attack to kill the former member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū.

But despite with six of their members dead, it didn't seem to slow them down one bit.

Naruto's frown deepened as began to wrap his left forearm in bandages, remembering his confrontation against Pein in Amegakure as soon as he had left Mt. Myobuko. The fight itself was one that was considered a battle between gods and demons. True to Fukasaku's words, Pein was one individual that was not to be taken lightly, due to one of Rinnegan's abilities was a shared field of vision through all the paths, but that didn't stop him from marching into Ame to confront Pein and begin an all-out assault as he skillfully, stealthily and mercilessly eliminated each of the paths, until the Deva path was left. The last path resulted to be difficult, even in his sennin modo as the path easily repelled off any attack he launched at him, luckily though, thanks to his kage bunshin, he was able to regain senjutsu chakra as he left them hidden within the city, gathering as they meditated only to be reversed summoned whenever he was out of chakra. But unfortunately, the path proved to be more powerful than the others as it was able to subdue him with some difficulty. As Naruto was pinned by the chakra receivers, the Deva path made a mistake of telling him of how had destroyed his home in order to draw him out, how both of the sannins with everyone else he come to consider family fought valiantly to defend their home, only to be proved futile in the end as he obliterated all of them. But what angered him the most is that Pein informed him that he was also a former student of Jiraiya and betrayed his mentor.

In his anger, the blonde tapped into the nine tail's chakra; going up to six tails as it destroy his confines.

A kyuubified Naruto proved to be too strong for the Deva path to handle, even more when a seventh tail appeared, resorting to Chibaku tensei.

Naruto sadly smiled softly as he recalls finally meeting his father, even if it was inside his mind due to him almost losing control to the Kyubi and almost ripping the seal off. The Yondaime Hokage appeared in his mind and stopped him from ripping the seal off and told him that he was his son, but also warned him about the mask wearing Akatzuki member, which Naruto already knew that it was Madara. Despite all that, he told him proud he was of him, even if he was saddened that the village, along with their sensei and loved ones were gone. Also, his father knew of the people he left behind, he knew of her. His father could feel the deep regret he felt at having to leave her behind, regret of abandoning the people he had come to consider a second family, but mostly his biggest regret was to allow his anger and despair to get the best of him, causing him to make a drastic decision that caused him to leave her behind.

"Find happiness my son and remember that no matter what, I'll always love you and believe in you."

Those were his father's last words he spoke and passed him the knowledge on how to use his signature jutsu and seals to him before he fixed the seal containing the fox and vanished.

With new vigor, Naruto resumed his fight against Pein, defeating the Deva Path and finding the real body of Pein in the tallest tower of Ame, too weak to be much of a threat to him, remembering his conversation with the dying Nagato;

**~ " ~ Flashback ~ " ~**

_"...Do you hate me? Now that you see me before you...you want your revenge, don't you?" the redhead asked as the blond Jinchuuriki as he gasped for air._

_"If you kill Nagato and get your revenge, that won't change anything. It'll only make you feel better," Konan said clearly as she stood in front of him protectively._

_"You're right," Naruto nodded. "But I didn't come here to talk to you; I __came here to find out how I would feel when I finally saw you in front of me."_

_"And?"_

_"__I really want to kill you,__**" **__growled Naruto, didn't attack however, "But I won't."_

_His answer surprised Nagato._

"_Ero-sennin wouldn't have wanted that. You were his student, he trusted you and you betrayed him by giving up everything he stood for," began the blonde, "Jiraiya-sensei desired peace, but not through pain and fear. That kind of peace would bring nothing but more suffering and death, thus not breaking the cycle of chaos."_

_By then Naruto turned around to leave, but stopped shortly without looking back;_

"_You're right about one thing, the shinobi world is doomed to destroy itself, but I will find true peace, for as long as humanity exists there will always be fighting. A little fight now and then is good and all but too much of it can consume you."_

_With that, he left a shocked Nagato to his last breaths._

**~ " ~ End Flashback ~ " ~**

After he had left Ame, a few weeks had passed when he heard about the 'God' of Ame dying among shinobi forces that were stationed over the smaller villages.

He noticed after fighting Pein, that he felt different. He didn't feel the anger and the hate he once had after he found out of what had happened to the village along with his precious people. He now felt somewhat at peace. He didn't wish to fight to get revenge for his dead ones. No, he wanted to fight for the peace that the future generation would live in, just like ero-sennin stood for.

By now, Naruto had finished wrapping his right forearm, his sight stuck on the orange guild stamp on the palm of his right hand.

"I wonder if they have forgotten about me during theses last three years," mused the blonde quietly, his voice carrying the guilt he felt and pain as he stared out the window, "Erza . . . Have you forgotten me as well and moved on or am I still in your thoughts?"

Sighing, he reached out for his armor. It was a battle worn anbu armor vest that he had managed to salvage after going to the ruins of Konoha in hopes of finding any other survivals, but he found none. After finding items that were still usable, like a sword, anbu equipment, some scrolls, medicine, etc. Naruto left the ruins, not looking back once.

Then his thoughts drifted to his once brother turn traitor, his eyes hardening as he recalls his fight with his former teammate. It had been seven months after his battle with Pein and during those seven months, the blonde kept on training till he dropped from exhaustion and his body ached. He managed to learn swordsmanship from a wandering swordsman, learning a style that was supposed to have god-like speed and being able to read your opponents movement before they even make them. It only took him 3 months to learn while he practiced some of the jutsu he had gathered from the scroll of secrets (including his father's signature jutsu), that miraculously, managed to stay intact during the fall of Konoha. After parting ways with his master, Naruto had found a town where he could re-stock on supplies and re-create the special kunais needed for the Haraishin no jutsu.

After leaving the town once he got all the supplies he needed, Naruto was confronted by his former teammate in the forest with his new team, team Taka. Sasuke had one thing in mind and that was to kill Naruto, confident that Naruto was weak as he was still trying to 'save' him, but the blonde had severely surprised the Uchiha when he instantly killed two of his teammates, leaving the him and the girl of the team alive. The Uchiha was shaken at the fact that the dobe had actually killed without remorse, but thought it was a fluke and called his now deceased teammates weak, angering Naruto even more since he strongly believed in Kakashi's motto.

Once the fight began, the gap between their power was visible as day. To Naruto, Pein was a more difficult opponent that he had ever fought while Sasuke, he could telegraph most of his attacks and counter before the Uchiha even had a chance to defend himself. Of course, the Uchiha was pissed that the dobe, since he was struggling against a nobody while Naruto seemed not to be taking him seriously, asking himself why was the dobe still stronger than him so he resorted to using his Magenkyo Sharingan after having his brother's eyes implanted into him. At this, Sasuke began to boast how he was invincible since he now had a complete Magnekyo sharingan, and that he would destroy the last remnant of Konoha just like they had done to his clan. To say that Naruto was shocked was an understatement, but he didn't care since everything was in the past and moved on to live in the present. Without warning, Naruto launched one of the special kunais in the air and watched it descend on Sasuke and used to kunai kage bunshin no jutsu to create various clones of the kunai and watched them land scattered around the Uchiha. Sasuke arrogantly boasted about his aim, but Naruto's cold smirk unnerved him as he began to glow a faint yellow and in a blink of an eye, he disappeared in a yellow flash that flashed around him.

Sasuke didn't know what had happened until a few seconds later he began to feel the most incuciaring pain as he looked down and saw that his body had been severely cut. Shakingly, the Uchiha looked back only to find Naruto with his sword drawn and his back facing him.

Naruto simply muttered, "It's over."

And Sasuke fell on his back with a giant gash appearing on his chest going down to his waist diagonally as blood gushed out freely, gasping for his last breaths as he glared at the blonde hatefully.

"Damn you . . . Naruto . . ." were the Uchiha's last words before he left the world of the living. (**A/N**)

Karin, who was spared by Naruto, had spread the word that Konoha's Yellow Flash had been reborn.

A month later after killing the Uchiha, Naruto was confronted by Kumo's remaining container.

Killer Bee had first attacked him to evaluate him and was impressed that the son of the Yondaime Hokage was able to go toe to toe with him, but when Bee decided to use his bijuu shroud, the tables were turned against the blonde. Naruto was hard pressed, even in Sennin modo, Naruto was able to keep up somewhat with Bee.

After the fight, Bee had asked him why he hadn't used the Kyuubi's chakra, only for Naruto to answer regrettably that he could not control it.

Then he had spent another seven months with Bee as he went to master the Kyuubi's chakra and it wasn't easy for Naruto had to face the darkness in his heart, but in the end he came to embrace it as his faith in himself grew tenfold. Once he had conquered the darkness, Bee told him that he could face the Nine-tails in order to control his chakra.

The struggle against the fox was hard, so hard that he almost lost himself to the hate he had conquered . . . that is until he had an unexpected visit from his mother.

Naruto chuckled of how back then, he thought that his mother was a trick made by the fox, but he was sorely mistaken when she whacked hard in the head while shouting her own catchphrase.

**~ ' ~ Flashback ~ ' ~**

_He and his mother spent a good amount of time talking after she helped him defeat the fox. They talked about how she meet and fell in love with his father, why she didn't like her hair so much until Minato had saved from a certain incident, causing Naruto to pout since he admitted his mom being very attractive with red hair, almost making him wish he had red hair as well. Then she told him of the events that happened the night the Nine Tails attacked the village. By the end, Naruto swore to kill Madara for everything he had taken from him._

_Then his mother tried to lighten up the mood by trying to tease him of having found a girl yet, but it backfired as she saw his downed cast look;_

"_What's wrong socchi?" asked his mother with concern_

"_I did find a girl that made me feel I could on the world but . . . ." Naruto trailed off, unable to finish his sentence;_

"_But you left her in order to stop this war," finished Kushina for him, hitting it on the nail as she saw him nod_

"_Yes and the guilt I feel for doing so is at times unbearable, but I can't go back anymore," said the blonde, more downcast_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because I betrayed them, I betrayed her. A guild is a family that helps one another and I threw it back in their face by denouncing their help and coming here alone," tears began to appear in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall, "I can still see her eyes in my sleep, full of hurt and anger."_

_Kushina went to reach her son and pulled him into a hug, comforting as she rubbed his back softly, finally breaking the wall that held all of his guilt and pain as he began to sob;_

"_Why? Why is it that when I finally find happiness, it's taken from me or being forced to leave It behind!" cried Naruto on his mother's shoulder, "First you and dad, then old man Hokage, then Jiraiya and Tsunade-bachan and now Erza, why damnit!"_

"_There there now, it's alright," soothed his mother as she pulled from the hug and looked at him in the eye with tears in her own eyes, "Go to her once this all over."_

"_But how can I! She probably doesn't want to see me ever again!" cried Naruto, but his mother just gave him a reassuring smile;_

"_Call it mother's intuition, but they do miss you, especially her, go to her socchi, she does love you as much as you love her," said Kushina before her own eyes showed such sadness, "And I'm so sorry. We made you into the nine tail's vessel and left you with a heavy burden," unable to look at her son in the eye, "I wasn't there to raise you, I wasn't there to love you."_

_Naruto looked down as well with a sad smile;_

"_Don't apologize. I had a lot of hard times growing up as a jinhuuriki, but I never once blamed either of you," said Naruto, causing his mother to shot up and look at her son in surprise. Then Naruto looked at his mom with a smile, "Maybe I never understood what a parent's love is really like, but I never had a mom or dad to begin with, but I managed," then his smile got even brighter, "But now, I get it. I live because my parents gave their lives for me. You filled me up with love before putting the fox in me and here I am, happy and healthy," opening up his eyes with his smile never leaving him, "I'm glad I ended up being your son."_

_At this point, Kushina was in tears as her body slowly began to disintegrate, reaching towards her son for a last, final hug;_

"_Thank you for letting me be your mother, thank you for letting Minato be your father and thank you for being our son. Thank you . . . . . Thank you . . . ."_

_By the time she had reached him, her presence had disappeared as her chakra splashed Naruto with tears rolling down his eyes, her words still lingered on._

**~ ' ~ End Flashback ~ ' ~**

After he bid farewell to his mother, Naruto resume his training in mastering the Kyuubi's chakra. It was a hard task, but in another seven months of none stop training, he managed to control the chakra up to a margin, since the Nine Tails was being uncooperative. However, he didn't had time to worry about that since the news of Madara joining the battle, after remaining behind the curtains for so long, with the statue that held the captured bijuus along with the re-animated former containers, thanks to Kabuto. It was chaos, with Kabuto forming an alliance and bringing back the dead shinobis from the past to the world of the living, the shinobi alliance was struggling to obtain victory, but thanks to one of the resurrections, Itachi, managed to break free from the control seal and sought the medic to successfully stop the Edo Tensei, giving the alliance a fighting chance as every shinobi brought back to life returned to the world of the dead. Meanwhile, Bee and Naruto were fighting the former jinhuuriki's who were in control of Madara and the bastard himself. Bee and Naruto managed to hold off the tail beasts, considering that the two contained the two most powerful of the tail beasts and that Kurama (Kyuubi) willingly accepted to help out the blonde. After witnessing that Itachi had succeeded in stopping the Edo Tensei, the two concentrated their attention on Madara.

Naruto and Bee attack with valor and strength, but with their enemy wielding both the Rinnegan and Sharingan, he proved to be a tough opponent, but not untouchable as they both had managed to land a few good hits on him but was still too strong for them. They both knew that they had to retreat, but not before they took advantage of Madara's focus on them as they sent two powerful bijudamas, bypassing their enemy as their main target was the statue, destroying along with the tail beasts but that didn't matter since they would manifest down the road again.

After ensuring that the statue was demolished, Bee used his ink to blind Madara, as said person was still in shock as his carelessness and saw his plan blow up to pieces. Once he had regained his focus, with a fury snarled, he turned his attention back to his targets, only to find them that they had retreated.

Now, after nine months after the statue was destroyed, no one had heard of Madara, but some believed that he went out to try and re-captured the tail beasts, while some thought he had gone to re-strategize his plans, but one thing was for sure, whenever he chose to re-appear, he would be back with a vengeance directed at the last two remaining jinchuurikis.

A knock on his door brought the blonde out of his thoughts as he looked towards the entrance of his room;

"Come in," Naruto announced

The door opened revealing Killer Bee coming in with a serious expression on his face;

"He's back and has called us out for a final confrontation at the Valley of the End," announced Killer Bee

Naruto nodded his head in confirmation;

"I'll meet you at the entrance, there's something I have to do first, it won't take long."

Killer Bee nodded his head and walked out of the room, leaving Naruto by himself as he looked in front of him, standing in front of his mirror, armor and gear ready for battle as he sought to finish this once and for all.

Then quickly, he made a few hand signs and slammed his hand on the ground. A puff of smoke suddenly sprouted out of nowhere and once it had dispersed, Fukasaku stood there.

"Hello Naru-chan, it's been a while," greeted the toad.

Naruto nodded his head with a small smile;

"That it has Fukasaku-sensei."

"So what you summoned me for?" asked the toad

"I want you do me a favor," replied Naruto, causing the toad to look at him with a raised eyebrow. Slowly, Naruto reached for a scroll that was resting on his bed and grabbed it, then he reached for his necklace and ripped it off his neck before he put it in a small box and gave the two items to the toad, "I want you to go back to Fairy Tail and deliver these two items to either Master Makorov or Erza," then Naruto grimaced a little, "But if you find Erza wanting to kill you, then give the items to Makorov."

"So . . . it's time," stated the toad elder, knowing what Naruto's actions meant.

"Yea . . . I don't know if I'll make it out alive, but in the scroll, everything will be explained," informed Naruto, with a sad smile, "But let her know . . . that she never left my thoughts for I still love her and that I'm sorry for being foolish in choosing this path."

Fukasaku just nodded his head silently and bowed in respect towards the warrior in front of him before he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Sighing, Naruto steeled himself before he walked out of his room with one thought in mind;

"_Today . . . this war comes to an end Madara._"

.

.

.

Cut.

This chapter feels like it didn't bring much emotion, but it did set up for the next coming chapters.

On the A/N for the Naruto/Uchiha fight, I just felt that it wasn't as important for two reasons, one) sakura is dead, so the promise he made to her isn't valid anymore and two) Pein is far stronger opponent in my eyes than Sasuke.

Hope you guys like the chapter and I'll try to post the next chapter soon as possible.

Kyu no Ken out.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail.

.

. .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

Her Words, His Strength;

Her Love, His Resolve.

She felt neither alive nor dead or knew where she was or as to how she got here, for all she could remember was her past caught up with her as she returned to the place she had nightmares from. She fought her former comrade, Jellal, only to be defeated by him and then rescued by Natsu after he fought and defeated Jellal, then entering the lacrima, preparing to sacrifice herself to save her friends from the tower's explosion due to the uncontrollable magic. Just as before her whole body was sucked in, she managed to say her farewell to Narsu and then she was completely enveloped and everything turned black.

Then, waking up in shroud wearing white dress. Darkness was surrounding her as she looked around to find anyone, but couldn't find any body. Suddenly, a lightning flashed in front of her, causing her to shield her eyes from the light. Once she felt that it was safe to let down her guard, she slowly brought down her arms down while slowly opening her eyes as she tried to readjust them after the unexpected flash. Once her eyes were able to focus, they widened in shock as to what visage was in front of her . . . . more likely, below her as she soon found out that she was floating about over a massive war zone. (**A/N:** read note at end of chapter.)

The bodies of many lay on the ground, dead, as the crows feasted upon them. Blood covering the field as it seeped out of the bodies.

Covering her hand in shock and horror as she could not take her eyes off of it.

Then without warning, her vision began to blur, as if someone was pulling her at a rapid pace as she saw everything around her dash at rapid speeds only to stop at another battle field, except this one, it seemed old, but what caught her eyes was the fact that this battle seemed to have taken place in some sort of city. For she could see the remains of the village as she looked around from above, then she saw something that caught her attention. On the northern part of the village from where she was floating, she saw a mountain with five faces carved on it with many crosses on top of the mountain. Below it was a destroyed tower. Her eyes widen once more when she got a closer look and saw the insignia on the top of the once proud tower. It was a swirling leaf, remembering the only person in her life to have ever worn something similar on him;

"Naruto. . ." whispered Erza, her eyes widening in realization at the fact that she was in Naruto's home world, that she was seeing the destruction of what was once his home.

Then she remembered the masses of bodies of the previous field, causing anguish to slowly grip Erza's heart. Despite all the claims she made about not caring of the blonde's state, deep down she still loves him with all her heart and worries for him, afraid that he'll never come back to her, afraid that she'll never get the chance of seeing him once again, the chance of . . .

Rapidly, Erza shook her head, knowing that by sacrificing herself, she had done the same to the second person that mattered to her the most, just as Naruto did when he left her, to protect that what you cherish.

A rumbling noise reached her ears, catching her attention as she turned towards the noise only to find dark clouds in the far distance with lightning dancing around the clouds while flashes appeared on the other side of the mountains. A sense of hope began to fill her heart, but before she could do anything, the same rush feeling surrounded her as everything dashed around here, fast forwarding to the source only to stop on top of a valley with two giant statues or what was left of the two statues standing on either side of a waterfall, falling into the massive body of water that occupied most of the valley.

Erza saw the destruction that was taking place, flashes of metal flying at high speeds as whenever the sound of swords clashed; a small crater was crater on the rocky surfaces of the valley. Then suddenly she heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh as one of the blurs was sent back, crashing onto the boulders ashore of the valley. The person that had crashed was a tall, muscular, dark skinned man with sunglasses and blonde/whitish braided hair and goatee with some marking on the left side of his face, just underneath his eye. She watched as he spat out blood and wiped it off from his mouth. He was covered in various cuts and bruises as he slowly stood up to his feet. A moment later, a second person with both forearms wrapped up in bandages with a battle vest that was destroyed from the left shoulder, exposing half of his chest and upper part of his abdomen with tight, battle torn, shinobi pants, covered steeled toed combat boots and sword in hand, appeared beside the dark skinned man, helping his comrade stand to his feet. (**A/N:** think of the boots Auron wears from FFX)

Erza's eyes widened in shock as a tear began to form in her eye and she felt her heart clenching as she felt the feelings she tried to bury resurface as she recognized the wild, although a bit longer, blonde hair with those ocean blue eyes and the three whisker like scars on each cheek. Beside the dark skinned man stood the man she had fallen in love with, the man she gave herself to . . .

. . . Naruto Uzumaki.

"Naruto," muttered Erza as she didn't know what to feel at the moment. Whether to be happy and relieved at the fact that her lover was alive and in one piece, despite that he's battling for his life at the moment or angry and hurt at the fact that he left her for three years.

Quickly she shook her head once to clear her head and to take a glance at the appearance change he had gone in these past three years.

No longer was the slim, semi build, carefree grinning idiot that she had met back in the guild those years go, no, what stood in her sights was a man that has suffered casualties of war. Standing at a near 6'2" ft tall, a ripped/cut build body that was acquired from hours and hours of extreme training (**A/N:** think of Bruce Lee's physical appearance, best way I can describe it). Several scars, old and new could be seen on his body, but what she was keeping her sights on was his face. Three years ago she found him attractive and now he looked handsome, but instead of the usual foxy grin she loves so much with eyes that matched his grin were replaced with steeled, hard, ice cold eyes of a warrior fighting for survival, his whole face was unreadable.

"_Are you alright B?_" asked the blonde without looking back at his fellow jinchuuriki in a voice that was a bit deeper, but more mature for some his appearance.

"_Fo sho I'm alrighty motha-fucker, after all I'm the almighty Killer B!_" exclaimed B, causing Naruto and unknown to him, Erza, to sweat drop at the man's method of speaking.

"Weird guy," muttered the red head, watching as the person, now known as B, turn serious.

"_He won't catch me off guard a second time,_" claimed the hachibi container while Naruto just nodded his head;

"_We don't have the luxury of making a mistake or Madara will capitalize on it end us as fast as possible,_" the blonde reminded his teammate, only for both of them to tense up as they heard a dark chuckle and position their weapons in front of them in a defense position.

Erza turned around and saw the source of the cruel sound, feeling a shiver go down her spine as soon as she laid eyes on him.

A man with white mask that covers the entire upper-half of his head with a design that more resembles the Ten-Tails' single eye, consisting of a ripple-pattern with three tomoe around the centre, two of which make out the mask's eye-holes while the third is painted on. Through the eye holes of the mask, she could see that the man had to different kind of eyes, one was purple with a ripple pattern and the other was red with tomoes linked together in a circle. He was also wearing a slightly battle damaged (Uchiha) robes with a fan crest on his back, belt sash, gloves and a purple bandanna that tapers off down to his back. On his hand, he wielded a purple war fan.

"_How right you are jinchuuriki,_" said the man sinisterly as he gripped his weapon tightly, "_I'm definitely going to make you two pay for foiling my moon eye plan._"

"_Fuck you and your fucking moon eye plan!_" growled the blonde before he vanished out of her sights. She looked franticly for the blonde, but turned her heads towards the masked man once again when the sound of weapons clashing reached her ears.

She saw the blonde attacking the masked man relentlessly while his opponent seemed to struggle a bit as he blocked some of Naruto's attacks as a few of the slashes made by the blonde managed to pass through his defenses and nicked his opponent in some places. The masked man then went on the attacked as he threw a couple of star shurikens only for all of them to be cut down in two by the blonde, who managed to dodge vertical strike made by the masked man as he jumped back, allowing Killer B to dash in a surprise attack with his bijuu enhanced lariat, but Madara managed to make himself transparent as the attack went through him. Killer B just watched as Madara turned around with his weapon poised to strike, only for him to look up and see Naruto coming down with a downward strike. Madara sidestepped the strike, but Naruto used his momentum to twist his body and hit Madara in the mid-section with a hard palm thrust then followed up with an upward sword slash, managing to cut Madara across his mask as said Uchiha jumped a couple of feet away and placed his weapon on the ground before he thrust both his hands outward;

"Shinra Tensei!"

Erza watched as both containers were sent sailing across the battle field by an unseen attack only to crash on the mountain side of the valley;

"Naruto!" cried Erza as she was about to float down his direction, but she halted when she saw the spot where he landed explode in a massive dust cloud. Once the dust cleared, Naruto stood there with a orange shroud that parted itself down the middle and opens into a large full-length coat, revealing a black undergarment with magatama near his neck, whilst his seal's numerous swirl-patterns that was located all over his body, open out into complete, dark circles. Naruto's eyes also changed as his eyes turned into slit pupils and his whisker-markings become much thicker. The cloak also has nine tail-like appendages formed from the cloak and flowing from it with lines running down the middle of each.

She turned to where B landed, since he too caused a minor explosion as he also entered his second bijuu form. A chakra cloak is much darker than Naruto's covered his body, but unlike Naruto's B's form looked like a small minotaur with eight tails swirling behind him.

Madara narrowed his eyes behind his mask as he saw both jinchuuriki's calling forth on the beast's chackra from within them;

"_You two are no match for me even in that form,_" mockingly taunted Madara, "_Or have you forgotten that I can control the beasts within you with these eyes,_" the Magenkyo Sharingan began to spin wildly as he was about to use its power to subdue the bijuus' chakra.

However, Naruto wordlessly brought his hand up in a single hand sign as he pushed a small amount of chakra.

Just as the masked Uchiha was about to use the power of his Sharingan, Madara suddenly felt shockwaves coursing through his body as he felt the power of his eyes being nullified. Looking down on his abdomen, he saw a seal glowing there, his eyes widening when he saw chackra chains erupting from the seal and wrapped him before anchoring themselves onto the ground. Hatefully, Madara looked up ahead with a glare, only to find Naruto with his hands extended out and chakra tails pointing ahead of him while B poised his tails pointing above him, both of them creating Bijuudamas.

B had already swallowed the compressed chakra while Naruto held the bijuudama in front of him with his chakra tails while he cocked back his right hand with a palm thrust;

"_This battle ends now! Bijuudama!_" shouted Naruto as he thrust his palm forward just B spat out his attack.

Erza watched as the two masses of energy reached their intended target and collided with him, creating a blinding flash that caused the red head to cover her eyes with her forearms as she heard a massive explosion that no doubt had obliterated parts of the valley.

A giant mushroom cloud appeared after the attack had dispersed as the sound of rocks falling and water rushing was heard throughout the valley as the two jinchuurikis waited patiently with their guard up for the smoke to clear, hoping that it was enough to have killed their shared enemy.

Little by little, the smoke and dust began to clear as Erza slowly dropped her arms only to shockingly gape at the massive crater that was being filled with water. She turned her sights towards the two and watched as the two of them turned back to normal, with their guard still up, and looked around as if scanning the area for any signs of the masked man;

"_Yo Mr. Nine, do you think we got him?_" asked the dark skinned man as he stood against the blonde's back.

"_I wish I could say we did,_" answered Naruto as he gripped his sword once more and reached for his pouch and pulled out tri-ponged kunai, "_Any normal shinobi could have not survived two bijuudamas,_" then his eyes turned hard, "_But the bastard is anything but normal._"

"_Hmm you're right about that Mr. Nine,_" agreed B

Then suddenly, from underneath, a dozen chakra chains bursts and wrapped themselves all over their bodies and began to squeeze like a snake does when it caught its pray. However, as the chains began to further tighten it, the sound of bones popping and the sight of blood dripping down from the cuts made by the chains as it cut through the skin. Naruto was about to call forth on his Sage Mode, but Madara suddenly appeared in front of him with a hand sign and caused electric currents to flow throw B's chains, causing the hachibi's container scream out in pain while Madara pulled out a chakra conductor from his remaining sleeve and stabbed him several times on his upper body and with final stab, he plunged the conductor through his stomachs stomach and left it there for a few seconds before he roughly pulled it out of his torso. (**A/N: **Think of Kenshiro's 7 bullet like scars from Fist of the North Star)

"You despicable child!" growled Madara with half his mask destroyed from the right sight side and blind from his Rinnegan eye as a large gash went across his eye. His attire now almost torn to shreds from the jjinchuurikis's attack.

Naruto could only gape in shock as he felt his knees giving out on him and landing on his side.

Erza covered her mouth in horror as she watched Naruto get stab with his own sword and then, in slow motion, fall down to the ground with an audible thud.

"NARUTO!" screamed Erza as she floated down and kneeled on both knees next to, trying to cradle his head in her laps, but her touch seemed to faze right through him, helplessly watching as the blonde struggled to stay alive and conscious with blood dripping out of the corners of his mouth;

"Don't die Naruto, please don't leave me," pleaded the red head with tears now falling down her cheek as she caressed his cheeks, but her hand just went through his cheek.

She saw Naruto slowly turned his head into her direction, his eyes almost half opened and with a struggled, but audible whispered, he muttered;

"Erza . . ."

Erza smiled softly, happy that he was able to know that she was here with him;

"I'm here Naruto-kun, I'm here," she whispered back as she saw tears beginning to form out of the corner of his eyes;

"Forgive . . . Me . . . Erza . . . for abandoning . . . you . . . for hurting . . . you," said Naruto as he chocked, "I'm sorry . . . for hurting . . . your family . . ." by now he was shedding tears along with Erza, as she could see the pain, the regret and the loath within him. All because he chose to come back and stop a war. However, she also saw something that shined brightly than his other feelings, his love, the love that he held for her was still as strong as it was three years ago;

"It's alright Naruto-kun, I forgive you," soothed Erza as she leaned down and touch his forehead with hers, her tears mixing with his as they fell from her eyes onto his cheeks "Everyone else forgave you a long time ago, you're part of our family."

Naruto's tears just kept coming as a small happy smile appeared on his face;

"I love . . . you, Erza . . . with all my . . . heart and soul," managed to croak the blonde as he felt his body growing weaker.

Erza slowly brought detached her head from his and looked at him with teary eyes, but lovingly eyes none the less;

"I love you too Naruto-kun, come back home to us, to me. Everyone is waiting," she answered back as she leaned down once again, bringing her lips onto his as the two shared a lovingly passionate kiss.

The kiss was short, but the love they held for one another was felt. Erza then broke off the kiss and leaned closer to her lover's ear, whispering in his ear, causing his eyes to widen as life was brought back to him.

Then suddenly, a bright light parted through the darkened skies, but only Erza and Naruto were the ones able to see it. From within the light, Erza saw a hand reaching down for her, softly pulling her by the arm as the limb retracted itself back towards the light, despite her efforts to make the limb release her;

"Let me go!" shouted Erza as she punched the hand but saw that her efforts were futile and turned towards the blonde, who struggled to reach for her hand, desperately trying to reach for him, but it was to no avail;

"NARUTO!" screamed Erza with tears running down her eyes as she saw the man she loves disappear in a flash of light.

**~ ' ~**

Slowly, Erza began to open her eyes, seeing the dark sky covered in stars;

"_. . . Where am I?_" thought the red head

"ERZA!"

Hearing her name being shouted, she saw Gray, Lucy, Juvia and the remaining of her former comrades running towards her with tears on their eyes.

"Thank god you're ok!"

"Don't you dare scare us like that again!"

"Ne-san!"

"I'm . . . alive," muttered Erza as she turned to look at her hands, but quickly noticed Natsu was carrying her. He didn't a word for a few seconds till he suddenly dropped on his knees on top of the water;

"We're the same . . . It's the same for all of us . . ." began the dragon slayer as he shook, "Don't you ever do a thing like that ever again. NEVER!"

"Ok," whispered Erza with a small smile

"We cannot lose you," muttered Natsu through his tears, "We cannot lose you like we lost Naruto or she'll end up alone."

At the mention of his name, Erza's eyes widen as the recent memories of Naruto came rushing back to her mind;

"NARUTO!" she shouted as she tried to jump to her feet but only managed to get on her knees, Gray's, Happy's and Natsu's eyes widen as they stared at her with surprised looks.

"Erza?" asked Lucy, but Titania didn't answer as she was crying while hugging herself.

"I saw it . . ." she muttered as tears continued to fall from both her eyes, "I saw his home . . . I saw his home destroyed and covered in graves," Natsu's and Grays eyes widen in shock as Erza continued in a soft whisper, "I saw him."

Both of her teammates heard her and were about to ask her for his whereabouts, but refrained from doing so as they saw that whatever she had seen in the blonde's home world, it had shook her to the core as she began to cry uncontrollably.

Natsu knowing how much she cared for the idiotic blonde, he slowly brought Erza into a hug, giving her a shoulder to cry on as she hugged Natsu with all her strength.

Both, Lucy and Juvia were confused as they didn't know who this Naruto person was. Juvia then turned towards the stripping mage;

"Juvia is confused, who is this fishcake?" asked the water mage

She watched as Gray let out a sigh and looked up the sky with a saddened look;

"Naruto . . . was a member of Fairy Tail," answered Gray

"Was?" asked Lucy, "Did he die?"

"We don't know," replied Gray honestly, "That blonde idiot left the guild to go fight a war caused by the person that destroyed his home."

"How long has it been since?" asked Juvia

"Three years ago," answered Natsu as he still held a sniffling Erza

"Heard from him since?"

Gray just shook his head, meanwhile, Lucy was processing the information she just had been told;

"Three years ago," muttered the blonde hair girl, then her eyes widen into the size of dinner plates, "Three years ago! Does that mean . . ." her eyes falling on Erza.

Erza just nodded her head, confirming the girl's suspicion.

"Let's go home," muttered Erza softly while she still used Natsu for support.

Everyone else followed the pair quietly, while Natsu, Gray and Erza were thinking of Naruto.

**~ ' ~**

Meanwhile, back with Naruto on the elemental nations;

Naruto was still holding his hand high in the air as if trying to reach for something, however, he didn't last long as Madara harshly kicked him in the mid section, sending him flying into the rocks;

"You stubborn fool," spat Madara angrily as he saw the beaten form of his enemy.

However, the words and the pain didn't register in his mind as he was still trying to figure out whether he had actually seen Erza just now or was it a mere illusion;

"**She was here kit, she was here spiritually,**" he heard Kurama say within his mind;

"_But how?_" he asked the beast back mentally, "_If she was actually here then . . ._" his eyes widen in realization, "S_he must've died!_"

Kurama, sensing the turmoil his container was going into, tried to calm him down;

"**Kit, she is not dead,**" stated the Kyuubi, calming the blonde somewhat, "**Like you, she must've encountered some sort of situation where she found herself in the border of life and dead, like you're now, thus being able to see her spirit.**"

Naruto briefly remembering the kiss they just shared and the words she had whispered into his ear as he closed his eyes;

"_Kurama,_" began Naruto, "_If Erza was really here with me then and what she told me is true,_" by now the Naruto placed his hands onto the ground as he forced his body to stand up, "_Then I cannot afford to die here,_" half way his feet, the blonde opened his eyes, showing a will that unsettled Madara.

"Madara . . . Today you will be defeated!" shouted Naruto as stood on his two feet, glaring at Madara with fury

"_Kyu . . . I'm going to have to use it if I'm to end this battle once and for all,_" thought Naruto with determination.

"**Kit, you know using that energy is dangerous since you still haven't mastered it to its fullest,**" growled the Kyuubi softly, but Naruto simply grinned the same grin he used to give. The grin that would cause the blonde to prove everyone wrong and come victorious in the end.

"_Kurama, trust me. This time will be different,_" thought the blonde, causing the Kyuubi to look at him curiously;

"**And what makes you so sure of that?**" asked the nine tailed bijuu curiously, intrigued by the blonde's new drive.

Naruto's grin got even wider this time;

"_Because I have a reason to win. I have a home to come to, a family waiting for me. I cannot afford to lose to this asshole,_" replied Naruto

Kurama just closed his eyes and smirked.

"**Let's do it then.**"

Naruto suddenly placed both of his hands together in a single sign and used his chakra chains to create a powerful field around him;

"It is pointless to create a field to protect yourself," boasted Madara, "You're just avoiding the inevitable."

However, Naruto's grin never faltered as his eye appearance began to change. Yellow irides, with horizontal bar-like pupils replaced his usual blue ones and a reddish-orange pigmentation around the eyes his pupils turning into a rectangular shape. However, the blonde didn't stop there as Naruto called forth upon the Kyuubi's chakra to bring forth the cloak, however, due to the energies being different, they began to negate each other, causing Naruto to drop on one knee as he concentrated to stabilize both chakras and mix it into one;

"I can do this!" thought the blonde as he gritted his teeth, determined to succeed.

Madara, seeing what the blonde was trying to do, he jumped back as he flashed through a set of hand signs and reared his head back as he sucked air into his lungs;

"Katon: Goka Messhitsu!"

Exhaling out, a massive stream of intense flames that can set a vast area ablaze headed straight towards Naruto, engulfing him in a veritable sea of flames as it collided with him head on.

"Naruto . . ." groaned B, unable to help his fellow jinchuuriki due to the injuries he sustained at the hands of Tobi.

The sea of flames continued to dance lively, illuminating Madara as he watched with glee satisfaction the demise of the one that had destroyed his plans;

"Just like father and son, both perish for trying to defy me," said Madara as he turned back to finish B once and for all.

However, he suddenly came to a stop as he sensed a rise in chakra. Turning back, he saw the flames dancing in a vortex till they had finally parted down the middle, revealing a shinning blue light that blinded Madara as he used his arms to cover himself.

The light slowly receded as it revealed Naruto in his kyuubi/sage mode.

The shroud/cloak still looked the same, except that it was violet and more defined, almost as if the cloak looked like real clothing. Naruto's eyes changed as well, instead of having orange color eyes with slits or the sage's horizontal bar like pupils, his eyes were violet as well with a cross in each eye, a mix between the toad sages and Kurama's chakra.

Without warning, Naruto disappeared from view, causing Madara to look around for the boy, but didn't sense him at all as Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him and delivered a strong right hook into his face, shattering the rest of the mask as the man was sent flying away.

"**Kit, remember that you're on a time limit, your body is badly damaged to handle the mixture of chakras,**" reminded the fox

"I know, Kurama," replied Naruto as he disappeared in a yellow flash after Madara and reappeared ahead of him and delivered another devastating blow, a hard knee to Madara's midsection, causing the man to cough up blood, but Naruto didn't stop his attack there as he continued his punishment as he relentlessly attacked Madara with fast, hard punches and kicks to the face, chest and mid section, till he decided to finish with a straight kick under the chin, sending Madara air-born.

"_Why I can't use my sharingan!_" thought Madara enraged

"In case you're wondering why you are unable to use that eye of yours is simple bastard," said Naruto from Madara's back as he aligned himself perfectly behind him and wrapped his chakra tail around him, "I destroyed your sharingan when I placed that seal on you! Omote Renge!"

Naruto began to rotate at ferocious speed as he descended to the ground at a rapid pace, pile-driving the man head first into the ground as he jumped away towards his sword and quickly channeled his wind chakra in it. flashing right beside an injured Madara as he tried to stand up, only to scream in pain as multiple miniature slashes appeared on his body as Naruto suddenly appeared a couple of feet behind him with his sword poised in front of him.

However, Madara didn't see Naruto make a clone before he charged at him with the wind empowered sword, thu snot seeing the clone piercing his chest with a chidori before the clone exploded in contact, releasing strong wind currents as it cut Madara further;

"**Kit, you're about your limit, finish him now while you still have the power to do so!**" shouted Kyuubi, as he was able to sense Naruto's body beginning to give away faster and faster.

Heeding the Kyuubi's warning, Naruto quickly brought forth his chakra tails in front of his hands and concentrated a mass amount of swirling chakra in the center as he used the theory of the rasengan to develop the jutsu. Compressing it as it turned into a miniature maelstrom within the sphere once it was completed;

"BIJUUDENGAN!"

Naruto pushed the attack with all his might towards Madara, who watched helplessly as the attack neared him till it, collided with him , engulfing him completely as it floated there for a few seconds till it violently exploded, creating a massive kaiten like dome as the sounds of Madara's screaming were heard throughout the valley.

Within the dome, Madara felt his body disintegrating completely as the attack ate away his body. (**A/N:** same way kid buu died after being hit with a spirit bomb.)

Unfortunately, the explosion of the attack was too strong as the shockwave caused the dome to expand, engulfing everything in its path.

Naruto, already back on his normal state, panting on one knee as he watched the massive wave coming at him fast, his body to weak and damaged to move;

"This . . . looks like trouble," muttered the blonde humorlessly while he heard his inner demon scoff;

"**No shit kit! If we plan to survive this, you better come up with something quick,**" urged the Kyuubi as he used most of his chakra to heal the blonde as fast as possible.

Naruto's only response was a grin as he was illuminated before he was engulfed by the shockwave of his attack.

**~ ' ~**

Back on Fairy Tail;

A large beer jug suddenly shattered to pieces as some fell to the ground, startling the people at the guild, especially the bar tender and the master;

"What the hell?" asked Cana, as she was on the bar of guild and close to the cabinet where the jug was currently at. Then she turned towards Mirajane;

"Did you do something to it Mira?" she asked, but all she got was shake of her head.

"No, I'm just as surprised as you're Cana-chan," replied the beautiful barmaid

Makorov, however, stared at the pieces of the broke jug, having a feeling of dread swelling up in the pit of his stomach.

"Let me help you clean up Mira-chan," said Levy as the blue haired girl crossed over the bar table and kneeled in front of Mira, helping her pick up the pieces carefully;

"Thank you Levy-chan," thanked the girl as she gave her one of her sweet smiles, but suddenly grew concern as she saw that Levy had turned slightly pale as she stared at the large piece she held in her hand; "Levy-chan?"

The concern in Mira's voice caught the attention of the guild as they saw Levy standing shakily, as if spooked by something;

"Are you alright Levy?" asked Jet as he approached his teammate, but his concern was ignored as Levy turned towards Cana, who had stared at the piece in her hand with dread, beginning to scare her friend;

"Cana-chan . . . this was the jug that you gave to Naruto two months before his depature," said Levy as she showed the brown haired girl the cracked marking of a maelstrom.

Cana just stared at the marking with wide eyes before she reached for it with shaking hands, clearly remembering the day she gave it to him;

~ ' ~ Flashback ~ ' ~

"_What is this?" asked a confused Naruto as he scratched his head, looking at the box that Cana had placed in front of him at the bar table._

_The girl just rolled her eyes and grinned at the blonde;_

"_Just open it," ordered the card mage_

_Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto opened the box to find a brown beer jug with the markings of maelstrom on the front. Carefully looking at the jug, the blonde turned towards the smirking Cana;_

"_A beer jug?"_

_She just nodded;_

"_Yup, from now on, you and I will be drinking buddies," declared Cana proudly as she filled her jug full of alcohol along with his;_

_Naruto just smirked as he lifted his now filled jug;_

"_You know that my metabolism will just burn the alcohol right away, right?"_

_Cana's grin got even wider;_

"_That's why you're the perfect partner blondie and look; I even made sure that it has a maelstrom, since that's what your name means."_

_Naruto just shook his head with a small smile on his face;_

"_And here I thought it was going to be that of fishcake," teased the blonde, but the brown haired girl smirked in return;_

"_That can be arranged."_

_Both laughed as they clashed their jugs and chugged the content down in one gulp. After both drank and placed the jugs down, Cana's smile turned into one of appreciation;_

"_Hey Naruto."_

"_Hmm?"_

"_Thank you for coming into our lives," said Cana sincerely as she stared at her jug, "You're like the big brother I never and wished to have."_

_Naruto simply smiled as he gave the girl a one arm hug;_

"_Thank YOU Cana, for you're the little sister that I always wish I had," replied the blonde as he gave her a soft, but sincere smile._

~ ' ~ **End **Flashback ~ ' ~

Cana clutched the broken piece tightly with both her hands as she brought it close to her chest;

"Ni-san," whispered the girl softly as she shed a few tears.

Mirajane and Levy, both, went to each side of her as they hugged her and tried to comfort her as they rubbed her back and shoulders.

On the background, Elfman, Jet, Droy and everyone that was present lowered their heads in respect, some with tears in their eyes as they felt the jug breaking was an omen.

An omen of their blonde friend and brother not being among the living anymore.

Makorov just stared at his three children with a frown, his eyes fixed at the broken piece in Cana's hands, but his thoughts were interrupted as he felt a light tug from his coat. Looking down from where he was sitting, he saw a three year old red haired girl with the prettiest blue eyes wearing an orange one piece dress with the drawing of a white fox curled up in a ball on thefront of her dress. (**A/N:** similar to what a young Cana used to wear except without the squares.)

"Ji-chan, why is Aunty Cana, Aunty Mira and Aunty Levy crying?" asked the girl innocently.

Makorov smiled sadly at his surrogate granddaughter as he jumped off the table and hugged her;

"Because my little Ku-chan, they are remembering someone who is precious to us all, especially your mother," responded the Master

"So when is he coming back Ji-chan?" she asked innocently, not knowing what was the real reason behind their sadness.

"Because darlin', he is unable to come."

"Why not?"

Chuckling, he kissed her forehead and released her from the hug;

"I'll tell you one day, but for now, go on and play," the master shooed the young girl, who just grinned just like a certain blonde and dashed towards the Elfman, climbing over his shoulder as she ordered the giant man to mush. Elfman just smiled and did as the little girl told.

Makorov just walked out of the guild and looked up the sky;

"I hope that I'm wrong and that are still alive out there my boy," prayed the master as he finally began to shed a few tears himself, "For Erza's and your child's sake."

**~ ' ~**

In the middle of a large forest, an elderly person with a mustache, this extended up on his face's sides, making for a large pair of sideburns and his two bushy eyebrows as well. On his forehead was a tattoo, composed of a dot surrounded by two arched stripes.

He donned attire somehow reminiscent of that of a Native American chief, with a large headgear composed of feathers, with more, lighter-colored feathers adorning the back of his waist. He had a light cloth tied circling his waist, paired with loose dark pants reaching below his knees and simple shoes, and his chest was bare, with a necklace seemingly made of massive teeth around his neck, hanging over it. He also sported a large bracelet on each arm's bicep, and some bandages wrapped around the forearms.

Following behind him was a young petite girl with long, dark blue hair and brown eyes and a small, white Exceed with pink ears and brown eyes. The exceed also has two whiskers on each side of her face while wearing a pink bow near the end of her tail. The top consisted of a mustard yellow and pink top with a pink bow tie with a pink skirt with this top;

"Master Roubaul, what do think made that explosion?" asked the young girl

"I'm not sure Wendy-chan, but whatever it was, it was powerful," answered the Master

"Which any case, you shouldn't be here to begin Wendy," said the exceed strictly, causing the young girl to look down, however, Master Roubaul intervened;

"Carla, I brought Wendy along due to her Dragon Slayer healing magic," explained the master as he kept on walking, knowing he was nearing his destination as the energy kept getting strong and stronger, "If by any chance someone was caught in the explosion, we'll have Wendy heal them."

The exceed known as Carla just crossed her arms and looked sternly ahead, only to open her eyes in surprise as she, along with Wendy and Roubaul, began to see a tiny section of the forest destroyed. Once they arrived, they noticed a human size crater in the middle, the master signaled for Wendy and Carla to stay behind as he approached the crater with caution. Once he got close enough, he peeked into the crater and his eyebrows shot in surprise at what he found.

A severely injured man, with rags barely able to cover him from the waist down, lying on the ground, creating small pools of blood from the cuts around his body. He approached the injured man and right away noticed the seven holes on his upper body and midsection, the face covered in a mask of blood due to a large and deep gash on the forehead, although he could make out that the person's hair was blonde, despite that most of it was smeared in blood. He could tell that some bones were broken, since his right arm was bended at an angle that he knew it was impossible to reach, several cracked ribs since some looked close to pierce the skin and a broken leg.

Carefully, the master placed two fingers on the person's neck and searched for a pulse. Finding one, he let out a sigh as he felt a faint one, very, very faint, but a pulse none the less;

"Now the question would be . . . where you came from?" mused the master, but then saw something on the person's right palm that he recognized right away.

The insignia of Fairy Tail.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And cuuuuuttttt!

Bet you guys didn't expect that, huh?

As for the author note I made when Erza appeared in Naruto's world, well . . . . Let me put it like this, one you're in limbo, you're not dead or alive, meaning you're a spirit that can travel freely. Then again, I just go with the flow of how my mind works lol.

And yea, Naruto is at least a year or two or three older than the rest of the group, depending on who you compare him with, minus certain individuals.

Hope you guys liked it.

Also, I would like to thank my beta reader, Shuredda Sora, for helping me with my corrections of my story.


	4. Chapter 4

Evening to my fellow readers. I must say that I'm quite shocked as to see how well liked this short story is. 20 plus reviews in one chapter. SWEET! Now I know that it must've been a shocker to find out about the little bundle of joy, but I did one clue on the second chapter. The flashback where Naruto and Erza spent the night together, although since I didn't go into much detail in that flashback, I guess it wasn't taken much into notice.

Now, I heard that some didn't like the fact that the couple had a child before the last chapter or the epilogue. I was thinking of doing that, but then I thought . . . . Nah. There is a reason as to why I brought the child before the ending of the story. As to what the role is, read and find out.

(#): A/N at end of chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the mangas or the mangas themselves. (Would be nice if I did)

.

. .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

His Disappearance, Her Worry;

Her Faith, His Return

***Naruto's point of view***

_Where am I?_

_How long have I been here?_

_B?_

_Kurama?_

_Where is everyone?_

_. . . Am I dead?_

I felt light, as if I were floating on thin air. I could still feel my body, but at the same time it felt numb, unresponsive as I tried to move my body or at least open my eyes, but any command was shot down.

". . . Naruto . . ."

Suddenly a whisper came to my ears, a woman's voice calling my name. Then a speck of light suddenly appeared ahead of me. I still couldn't open my eyes, but I could feel its warmness.

". . . Naruto . . ."

There's that whisper again, but this time, it sounded different. More masculine than the previous one. Then little by little, I could feel my body beginning to respond as I felt two pair of hands helping me get up to my feet as each pair grabbed an arm each and supported me by the shoulders.

The light came closer and closer till I felt as if I was being hit by the sun's rays.

". . . Naruto . . . . Wake up, Sochi . . ."

Then suddenly, the darkness that surrounded me shattered.

***End of point of view***

Naruto slowly began to open his eyes, grimacing as he shut his eyes when the light blinded him. Feeling that the light's effect had passed, the blonde slowly opened his eyes once more, his vision blurry for a few seconds until he fully opened his eyes.

"Hello, son," said the male voice on his left

Naruto turned to his left, trying to figure out as to why the voice sounded so familiar. However, as soon as he saw who was standing next to him, his eyes widened in shock.

"Socchi . . . It is impolite to stare at a person with your mouth open," said a teasing voice on his right.

Naruto sharply turned to his right, his eyes growing wider as he could not believe what his eyes were seeing.

On his left stood his father, Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage.

On his right stood his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, the Chishio no Habanero.

"Mom . . . Dad . . ." muttered Naruto as he began to feel tears coming to his eyes.

Both of his parents smiled softly at him as they nodded their heads and not a second later was wasted as Naruto suddenly engulfed them both in a bone crushing hug, crying his eyes out as he held them closer.

Both parents wrapped their arms around their son, comforting him as they rubbed his back;

"Shh, it's alright socchi," whispered Kushina as she felt her son's tears hitting her shoulder, "Everything will be alright."

"I'm just happy to see you both again," said Naruto softly as he cried. Breaking the hug, Naruto looked at both of his parents with a sad smile, "Although, if you guys are here, then that means that I have died as well, doesn't it?"

Minato placed a hand on his son's shoulder, softly squeezing it as he shook his head;

"No son, you're at the border between life and death," informed the former Hokage, shocking Naruto;

"The injuries you sustained at the aftermath of your Bijuudengan made your body shut down completely, however, the injuries you received were so severe that by any counts you should have died," continued Kushina as she tried to swallow a lump that had formed in her throat, as it was not easy to tell your only child that were knocking on death's doors.

"If my injuries were that serious, then what stopped me from dying?" questioned the Naruto, only to receive a hard bonk on the back of his head;

"That hurt!" growled Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head, and would have continue his rant if it wasn't for the fact that his mother's hair had become like nine mock tails of the Kyuubi as her eyes held a dangerous glint;

"I swear! You had to be just as dense as your father! I'm going to pound it out of your thick skull, dattebane!" shouted Kushina as she choked her son while shaking him back and forth.

Minato took pity on his son as he knew firsthand of how bad Kushina gets when her emotions get the best of her;

"Kushina-chan, if you don't stop choking him, he may end up dead this time," said the Yondaime carefully, as he did not wish to suffer his wife's wrath.

Kushina then looked at her son. His eyes were swirls as saliva was dripping from the corner of his mouth;

"Oops," said Kushina with a blush on her face as she scratched the back of her head;

Minato just shook his head at his wife's antics before he turned to his son with a serious expression;

"Naruto, the only reason that you aren't completely dead is because you have a strong will to keep your promise," said Minato before he crossed his arms and stared sternly at his son, "Or did you already forget as to who you promised to return to."

Naruto's eyes widened as he began to recall his encounter with his Queen of the Fairies during his battle against Madara and also of what she told him before she disappeared;

**~ ' ~ Flashback ~ ' ~**

_"I love you too Naruto-kun, come back home to us, to me. Everyone is waiting," she answered back as she leaned down once again, bringing her lips onto his as the two shared a lovingly passionate kiss._

_The kiss was short, but the love they held for one another was felt. Erza then broke off the kiss and leaned closer to her lover's ear;_

"_There's something you need to know my love, you have a daughter," she whispered in his ear, causing his eyes to widen as life was brought back to him, "You're a father Naruto-kun, come back home to us."_

_**~ ' ~**_

_"__**Kit, you know using that energy is dangerous since you still haven't mastered it to its fullest,**__" growled the Kyuubi softly, but Naruto simply grinned the same grin he used to give. The grin that would cause the blonde to prove everyone wrong and come out victorious in the end._

_"__Kurama, trust me. This time will be different,__" thought the blonde, causing the Kyuubi to look at him curiously;_

_"__**And what makes you so sure of that brat?**__" asked the nine tailed bijuu curiously, intrigued by the blonde's new drive._

_Naruto's grin got even wider this time;_

_"__Because I have a reason to win. I have a home to come to, a family waiting for me. I cannot afford to lose to this asshole,__" replied Naruto_

**~ ' ~ End of Flashback ~ ' ~**

"Erza," muttered Naruto, causing a grin to appear on his father's face while a soft smile appeared on his mother's;

"She's the reason that you fight on to stay alive socchi," said Kushina as she reached and grabbed her son's hands, "The love you have for her is so strong, that even in death's door and unmoving, you're willing to fight to go back to her," tears began to appear on his mother's eyes, "So go to her socchi, be with the one that you love the most."

"Don't make the same mistake I did son," encourage Minato, "Don't let your daughter go through life without the love of her father. You, of all people, know how it feels to grow like that."

Naruto remained silent as he listened to his parents, with tears coming down his cheeks once more. Staring at his parents once more, he noted that they also were having tears coming down their cheeks as they gave him encouraging smiles;

"Thank you both, for being there for me in these past couple of events and for giving me the strength to keep moving forward on my darkest moments," said Naruto as he pulled both of his parents in another tight hug.

His parents hugged him back through their tears;

"Always remember Naruto, that no matter what, we will always love you and be proud of you, just like we are proud of the man you have become," said Minato as he tried not to choke due to his tears.

"And no matter what socchi, remember that you are not alone," said Kushina as she kissed her son on his forehead with tears spilling down her cheeks, "Even though we are not with you physically, we will always be with you in heart and spirit."

Naruto slowly began to feel some unknown force pulling him away from his parents, slowly breaking the hug till they maintained physical contact as they held each other by their forearms.

"Mom. Dad," began the blonde as he found it hard to speak due to the lump on his throat, "I love you both and we will see each other again," swallowing a lump, "I know I said it before, but thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being my parents and for showing me love the few hours we spent as a family before you sealed the nine tails within me."

His parents were forcing themselves not to break down and cry as they let go of their son and watched him drift away from him;

"Good-bye . . ." both son and parents said to each other before a big flash of light had consumed Naruto, the last thing he saw before he left were his parents, holding each other by the waist with tears down their cheeks, adorning loving smiles as they watched their son leave, proud of the man that he had become.

**~ ' ~**

Naruto began to open his eyes once more, feeling different this time as he could actually feel the weight of his body as he tried to sit up;

"**Finally you wake up you moronic flesh bag!**"

"Nice to see you too fur ball," thought Naruto sarcastically as he managed to sit up on the bed he was resting and looked around the room he was in, "Any idea where we are Kyu?"

But the bijuu only snorted in response;

"**How the fuck do I know,**" replied the nine tails, "**With you being almost dead, I had to act quickly to heal your body, so I didn't what was happening outside your body, speaking of which, what the hell happened to you? I could not reach you at all.**"

Naruto simply smiled sadly;

"I saw them again Kurama."

Kyuubi didn't have to ask to whom he was referring to, he already knew due to his connection with his container.

"So I take it there's no point of asking you how long I've been out," thought Naruto as he changed the subject, but his inner demon just snorted;

"**You aren't so dumb after all kit,**" replied Kurama

"Glad to see you're awake m'boy."

Naruto cut off the link with the Kyuubi and turned towards the source of the voice and found an old man standing on the doorway to the room, his hands folded behind him with a blue haired girl standing shyly behind the old man and a white cat looking at him with disinterest.

"I'm Roubaul, the master of the guild, how you feeling?"

"I feel sore, but it'll go away in a few days and I take it that you're the one that healed me?" asked Naruto politely

But the old man just shook his head and motioned to the girl behind him as he pushed her in front of him;

"It was this little lady that took care of you and nursed you back to health," replied the old man

Naruto looked at the young girl and noticed a couple of similarities between her and Hinata; both were very timid and shy personalities;

"Great . . . I hope she doesn't pass out just because I said hello," thought the blonde dryly

"**Just hope that she doesn't begin to stalk you,**" snickered Kurama, causing Naruto's eyebrow to twitch in annoyance;

"_Fuck you fur ball!_" shot the blonde back;

"And what is your name little lady?"

"W-Wendy," stuttered the blue haired girl

"Well Wendy-chan, thank you for nursing me back to health," said Naruto as he bowed his head in gratitude

"Well at least this idiot has manners," said the white cat out of the blue

"Carla!"

His eyebrow twitched in annoyance once more before he forcefully smiled at the white cat;

"And it seems that someone has a stick up their furry ass," countered Naruto

Carla's eyes narrowed as she pulled out her claws;

"Care to repeat that again blondie," dared the white cat

"Now Carla, that's no way to treat a guest," reprimanded the guild Master, causing Carla to huff as she crossed her arms and turned her head to the side. The guild master then turned towards Naruto, "Now, what is your name? How did you obtain those injuries? And lastly, how come you aren't surprised by Carla"

"My name is Naruto Namikaze and I was fighting in a war in my hometown far away from here and she isn't the first talking cat I've come across," replied the blonde truthfully

"I see," was the only thing the guild master said

"I have a couple of questions that I hope you can answer me," said Naruto as he turned his body to sit on the bed and allow his feet to touch the floor;

"Sure, what are they?"

"First, how long I've been in a coma?" asked Naruto

"Son . . . you've in a coma for at least five months," replied the old man carefully, "To be honest, I wasn't sure if you were ever going to wake up."

"I see . . . . . my next question is where exactly am I?"

"You're on the Cait Shelter guild, close to the Worth Woodsea and Southwest of Magnolia Town," answered Roubaul

Naruto dropped his head slightly as he let a smile appear on his face;

"Magnolia Town . . . . so I made it back," thought Naruto

"I take it that you're an actual mage from Fairy Tail," stated the guild master

Naruto just nodded his head as he looked up towards the master;

"By any chance did you contact my guild?" asked the blonde, but the old man just shook his head;

"No I didn't, for I didn't know if the stamp was a fake or not," replied the old man,

"I see."

Roubaul turned towards Wendy with a soft smile;

"Wendy-chan, could you and Carla go to the kitchen a prepare a meal for our friend? I'm sure that he built quite an appetite after being out cold for so long," said the old man kindly.

Wendy just nodded her head and walked out of the room, leaving the two alone in the room as they both quickly grew serious;

"You're a spirit aren't you," stated Naruto as he stared into the master's eyes

"Yes I am, how did manage to figure that out," asked/demanded Roubaul as he narrows his eyes, but his eyes widen when he saw Naruto's eyes had changed;

"I can sense many things when I enter this stage, you being an anchored soul being one of them," replied Naruto, "Now why haven't you passed on and lied to that girl."

Roubaul glared at the blonde before he closed his eyes and sighed. He began to tell Naruto that he was a member of the Nirvit tribe 400 years ago and the creator of a powerful Magic called Nirvana. A magic which should have been used to stop the wars ravaging the country. With the Nirvit inhabiting it as their home, Nirvana became a symbol of peace. However, all of the darkness it removed from its targets eventually took over the ones residing inside it, causing to slaughter each other till he was the only survivor, but, eventually died as well due to his injuries. He lingered on as a spirit in order to watch over Nirvana, waiting for someone capable of destroying it, something he couldn't accomplish.

Then he went on to explain on how, despite having sworn to live in solitude, one day, around seven years ago, a boy with a tattoo on his right eye came carrying a young girl, asking him to take care of her. Of how he could not decline after having been struck by the boy's clear and earnest gaze, he took Wendy in. He also explained as to why he lied to Wendy about the guild, as he did not want to disappoint her when she asked if he was the master of a guild. After saying that he was, he created the Cait Shelter Guild through the use of his powerful illusions, in order to make the girl happy.

After Roubaul finished his story, both sat quietly in the room, neither breaking the silence that had fallen;

"I can help you," said Naruto out of the blue, causing the old spirit to look at him with wide eyes;

"How?"

"I can seal off the Nirvana with an Oreikarukosu no Kekkai (1). With this seal, six points are created in order to strengthen the seal and it that would require more than a dozen S-class mages to overpower each point and if they manage to do so, there will be a nasty surprise waiting for them," said Naruto in all seriousness, "And to make sure that no one tries to break the seals, I can make it where the seal will only react to me or any of my descendants."

"And how you'll be able to do that?" asked Roubaul, intrigued.

"By mixing my own blood into the ink to create the seal," replied Naruto, making the old man's eyes grow wide, "So what say you Roubaul, do you accept?"

Roubaul's eyes suddenly narrowed;

"Why are you doing this? I know there's a motive behind this . . . generosity," demanded the spirit, but the blonde just shook his head;

"I'm not doing this as a means of getting something in return. You provided a place for me to stay as Wendy-chan nursed me back to health," explained Naruto, "And lastly, I believe that you want to join your people and be able to rest in peace."

"What of Wendy and Carla?"

"I'll bring them with me to Fairy Tail. There's another dragon slayer in the guild and mages of Fairy Tail always look out for each other," said Naruto, gaining a look of surprise from the old master;

"How did you know that Wendy is a dragon slayer?"

"She gives the same vibe as Natsu, who is also a dragon slayer, despite their magic being different," replied Naruto as he stood up and stretched his limbs for the first time in five months. Finishing his stretch, the blonde looked at Roubaul once more with his hand stretched out, "So do we have an accord?"

The spirit just stared at Naruto for a few seconds and slowly he reached out for the blonde's hand, but stopped as he stared directly into his eyes;

"You have to promise me that Wendy will be taken care of," said Roubaul, but Naruto simply smiled at the old man;

"I promise, I'll look out for her," promised the blonde

Nodding his head, the old spirit shook the blonde's hand.

**~ ' ~**

Fairy Tail;

It has been five months since Erza returned with her friends after the fiasco of the Crystal Tower and bedding farewell to her former comrades with a Fairy Tail farewell. Erza sat on the table with her daughter, being accompanied by Gray, Lucy, Natsu, Happy, and Juvia, as the child was going through a photo album that Lucy had found while she was cleaning the library and brought it for everyone to see. Kushina, being the curious child she was, wanted to see the pictures and no one could resist the pout with her eyes sparkling cutely. (3)

And so, here they were, sitting as the girl happily scanned through the pictures as she saw the old pictures when everyone was younger.

Erza's mind however, was going over the event that had occurred upon her return to the guild a few days later;

**~ ' ~ Flashback: 5 months ago ~ ' ~**

_Erza, Natsu and Happy, Gray and Lucy had finally come home only to get be astonished at the new building that stood in front of them, since the old one was destroyed in their war against another guild, Phantom Lord. Everyone was happy to see them and greeted them with a warm welcome. Soon after, Cana spotted them and gave them the grand tour of their new guild, showing the new lobby with their new waitresses, the new pool they had in the back, and amusement centre down below._

_However, their biggest surprise was when Master Makorov introduced them their two newest members, Juvia, who they didn't had a problem with since she helped out in recuing Erza, but the other member, they had problems with, since he was the one responsible for destroying their guild in the first place and for hurting Shadow Gear, Gajeel Redfox;_

"_Y-you're kidding me?" Gray yelled._

"_Gajeel Redfox," Natsu glared at the man, "What's this punk doing here?"_

"_Master? What kind of joke is this supposed to be?" Gray questioned, glaring at the former Phantom Lord mage._

"_Wait! Juvia brought him here," Juvia pleaded, trying to calm everyone down._

"_Juvia is one thing . . . but this guy was directly responsible for our Guild's destruction," Erza declared, looking ready to fight the iron dragon slayer. _

_But he looked disinterested as he snorted;_

"_Now, now . . . he was only acting on Jose's orders back then," Makarov reasoned, but got sidetracked as one of the cute waitresses passed by before turning all serious again, "It couldn't be helped . . . you know what they say—yesterday's enemies are today's friends."_

"_Stop screwing around!" Natsu yelled, marching towards his fellow dragon slayer "I can't work with a guy like that!"_

"_Oh, don't worry," Gajeel shot back right in Natsu's face, "I have no intention of being all buddy-buddy with you. I need work; one Guild is as good as the next. Not that I ever thought I'd end up working at a nasty Guild like this."_

"_What did you say?" Natsu snarled, clenching his fists._

"_Gajeel-kun is always so lonely," Juvia cried behind Gray, who was still glaring at the long haired mage, "Juvia couldn't bear to just leave him...I-I mean—Juvia doesn't like him or anything . . ."_

"_It is the duty of an old man like me to guide young men who have lost their way back onto the right path," Makarov spoke wisely, "He's not a bad guy at heart, you know; at least . . . I hope not."_

"_If this is Master's decision, then I will support it . . . but I think we should at least have someone keep an eye on him for the time being," Erza said clearly, before a smile appeared on her face, muttering softly, "Besides, Naruto would have agreed with the Master."_

_Only those within ear distance were able to hear what she said, while the rest were oblivious at the saddened looks they had._

_Thankfully, a flash of red and orange appeared out of nowhere as it tackled Erza on her stomach;_

"_Momma!" shouted Erza's daughter as she tried to wrap her tiny arms her mother's waist, "I missed you!"_

_Titania smiled softly at her child as she enveloped her in a tight hug;_

"_I missed you too sweetheart," replied Erza softly, "Have you been behaving like I told you while I was gone."_

"_Yup!" replied the girl with a grin similar to a certain blonde haired ninja, a grin that clearly said she was lying and had caused some mischief;_

"_KUSHINA!"_

_Everyone had turned at the direction of the pool and everyone started laughing when they saw Droy and Jet in blue skin while each held a bottle of sun blocker in their hand._

"_Look! It's the smurfs!" laughed Natsu as he pointed at them, his anger at Gajeel completely forgotten;_

_Erza looked at her daughter again, her grin still on her face;_

"_I didn't do it," said her daughter with innocent look. Erza just shook her head with a smile as she hugged her daughter once more._

_Juvia leaned closer towards Gray as she eyed the red-headed girl in Titania' arms;_

"_Erza has child?" whispered Juvia, which Gray nodded, "Who is the father?"_

_But before Gray could answer, Cana out of nowhere ushers them to take a seat, getting ready for the show that was about to commence as the whole lobby went dark;_

"_Too dark," complained Narsu as he breathed a small stream of fire into the air above him to cast some light on them._

_"Stop doing that!" ordered Cana, sitting across the table from Natsu, "It's a show, it's meant to be dark."_

_"What's all this now?" asked Gray with a boredom expression while Erza sat beside him with Kushina on her lap;_

_"There's a stage over there!" Lucy said as she saw the stage lit up with lights._

_The curtains began to part as it revealed the white-haired beauty in a dress with her legs crossed sitting on a chair and a guitar in her arms and a microphone with wings in front of her;_

_Everyone began to whistle and cheer when they saw the beautiful barmaid on stage, but everyone went quiet when she placed the microphone close to her lips;_

"_Before I begin, I want to dedicate this song to any members of our family who are far away from home, but especially to one Naruto Uzumaki, who isn't here with us physically, but he's never forgotten in our hearts," announced Mira, causing everyone in Fairy Tail to raise their jugs into the air;_

"_TO NARUTO!"_

_Kushina turned towards her mother;_

"_Momma, who is Naruto?" questioned the young girl, causing Erza to stiffen. Ever since Kushina had become aware of the lack of a father figure, she had dreaded the day she would ask about him, for she was afraid of hurting her daughter by telling her the truth of her father and the reason of him not being there among them, not knowing how she would take it;_

"_**I cannot keep hiding it from her, she deserves to know,**__" thought Erza. Sighing, Titania looked at her child's eyes with soft look in her eyes;_

"_He's your father Kushina," replied Erza, causing the girl's eyes to widen, making Erza grow nervous as she could not read her child's expression as she had turned away from her and looked down at the table;_

"_What happened to him momma?" whispered Kushina softly, but Erza could hesr the sadness in her daughter's voice. Hugging softly and kissing the back of her had, Erza replied;_

"_I'll tell you after your Aunty Mira finish her song, k darling?" whispered Erza on Kushina's ear, getting a nod in response from her._

_Mirajane began to pluck the strings as the melody began to hit everyone's ears;_

_"I gently touch the desk where you used to sit, alone once more today with the shadows," everyone was enchanted by her voice and sound of her guitar; _

"_I look up to the sky and whisper a prayer, you're out there, somewhere, too, under this vast sky," Juvia and Lucy were smiling while Happy looked as if he were in a trance with his cheeks having a little blush;_

"_I bear with the tears even as I tremble, even when the darkness threatens to swallow me," Erza and Kushina looked at each other with smiles before they turned towards Mira once again;_

"_Don't forget, there will always be, a place for you," Gray rested his head on his hand while Elfman was leaning back on his seat against the table, both wearing content smiles on their faces as Mira came to a close on her song;_

"_To come home too . . . and people waiting for you," Mira sang and the crowd cheered._

_Gajeel looked disinterested as he munched on the fries he had ordered earlier, that is, until he felt nothing but air. Turning to see where his fries had gone to, he found that Kushina had taken them as she happily was munching on them, causing the iron dragon slayer grow a tick on his head;_

"_Oi! Tomato! Give me back my fries!" Growled Gajeel, but suddenly felt a shiver down his spine when he saw the little girl turn at him with a menacing look;_

"_What you call me mister?" asked Kushina in a low voice, but Gajeel being prideful, he wasn't going to let some little girl get the best of him;_

"_I called you tomato, what you gon-," his sentence was unfinished as Kushina suddenly threw the plate on his face and followed with a kick to the face, causing him to fall onto Natsu;_

"_Never call me tomato you pierced bastard!" shouted Kushina with fury;_

"_What the hell you bastard! Trying to pick a fight with me!" shouted Natsu as he got up and pointed at Gajeel, who was struggling to get up after the unexpected kick, but was knocked down when someone threw a bowl at his face while Natsu got hit with a cup;_

"_OKAY! WHO THREW THAT!" demanded the pink haired dragon slayer as he flipped the table over, causing nearby members to scatter, irritating Gray;_

"_Damn it Natsu! Stop fucking around!" shouted Gray_

"_Don't start picking fights Kushina! It's unamly!" shouted Elfman as he punched another member;_

_However, they didn't notice Erza's eyes being hidden by the bangs of her hair while her eyebrow was twitching;_

"_DON'T YOU DARE YELL AT MY DAUGHTER!" exploded Titania as she knocked Elfman back with a kick then turned to punch Gray in the face, "AND DON'T CURSE IN FRONT OF KUSHINA!"_

"_I guess this is no time for ballad, huh?" Mirajane mused before in an instant she tore off the dress leaving her in a miniskirt and revealing top, "Let's rock this house, then!"_

"_This place hasn't changed a bit," commented Lucy as she took cover under the table but then smiled softly, "But then . . . I guess that's what makes it Fairy Tail."_

"_Why . . . Why couldn't they just bottle it up for one day?" Makarov asked darkly as he watched the chaos occur around him, "Tomorrow is the day the reporter comes to collect data on the Guild."_

_Lucy having heard the master and was about to question him until a sudden puff of smoke appeared in the center of the lobby, causing everyone to cough as they swatted away the smoke._

_Once the smoke cleared, everyone looked at what had caused the smoke to appear, only to find a toad with a white Mohawk, thick eyebrows and small goatee, wearing a simple cape sitting on top of Gajeel's head._

"_Greetings, I wish to speak with either Miss Erza or Master Makorov," informed Fukasaku as he eyed the destruction the guild had caused, "Although it seems that I've come at a very bad timing."_

_To the newest members, they looked at the toad with confusion, for they didn't know as to who he was, but to the rest of them, their eyes widen in shock as they had recognized him;_

"_ITS YOU!" shouted Natsu while pointing the finger at the toad;_

"_WHAT THE HELL YOU DOING HERE!" shouted Gray_

"_GET THE HELL OFF MY HEAD YOU FUCKING FROG!" shouted Gajeel as he swatted Fukasaku with his hand, making land on the ground with the dragon slayer chasing after him with a fist poised to strike, "I'LL SHOW YOU!"_

_Fukasaku simply jumped in the air and dodged Gajeel's strike, only to position himself in mid air above Redfox's back and deliver a hardening punch, causing the dragon slayer to grunt in pain as he was sent crashing down to the wooden floor, creating a human size crater._

_The toad sage landed on a moaning Gajeel and stared at the shocking eyes of guild members;_

"_Anyone else care to give it a try?" asked/dared Fukasaku, only to have everyone shake their heads simultaneously at the same time. The toad sage then turned towards the down Gajeel, "You shouldn't underestimate me young one. After all, I taught Naruto-chan everything he knows."_

_Hearing Naruto's name, Erza stepped forward as she picked up the toad sage in her hands and glared at him;_

"_Where is he?" demanded the red-head;_

"_Put him down Erza," ordered the master as he approached the two, "I want to hear what he has to say."_

_Erza looked at her master before she turned to glare at Fukasaku and placed him on top of the table;_

"_Master Makorov, I was sent here by Naruto-chan to deliver two items he gave to me before he went to fight his final battle," informed the toad as he pulled out the two items Naruto had given him, causing those that knew the reason of the blonde's departure to stiffen;_

"_Final battle?" asked a confused, yet nervous Lucy, believing the worst of the statement;_

"_That is correct, child," confirmed the toad sage as he jumped in front of Makorov and presented the items._

_Makorov was about to take the items, but Erza didn't agree with this;_

"_We don't want them," said Erza loudly, causing almost everyone in the guild to look at her with disbelief, including her daughter, who was clinging to her mother's skirt, "He's most likely saying his good-byes in that scroll to everyone here, when I know for a fact that Naruto is not dead and if he wants to give me that box, he can do it himself when he returns home."_

_Erza's eyes held a strong belief as she said her words while glaring at the toad;_

"_But Erza, we haven't hear from him for these past three years," argued Levy , "For all we know he could have died fighting the one who destroyed his home!"_

"_I hate to agree with her, but how are you sure that he is still alive?" questioned Gray as he eyed his comrade with sympathy as Erza comforted her child by placing a hand on her head and caressed her;_

"_Because . . . I saw him after I intended to sacrifice myself to stop the tower from exploding," admitted Erza as she stared into everyone's eyes. Most of them wide in shock and disbelief;_

"_I don't know how it was possible, but after I entered the lacrima, I found myself on Naruto's home world as a spirit," told Erza as she closed her eyes, remembering the images she saw from destroyed village, "I saw his home in ruins with graves running far in the distance on top of a mountain with five faces."_

"_The Mountain of the Hokages," answered Fukasaku, "It honors the previous leaders of the village."_

"_That's fine and dandy, but you still haven't said where you saw him Erza," clarified Cana as she sternly glared at Titania with crossed arms._

_Erza took a few seconds to recollect her thoughts as well as try to calm down the growing anguish she began to feel as she still remember clearly the seven times Naruto was stabbed and laid on the floor, bleeding. Taking a deep sigh, Erza responded;_

"_I saw him with another person, a dark skinned man with blonde/whitish braided hair. Both were fighting a masked man with some strange, different eyes."_

_The answer made Fukasaku gasp, gaining the attention of everyone in the guild as they saw the toad cross his arms and looked very pensive;_

"_The dark skinned man is someone like Naruto-chan, a bijuu container," clarified the toad, "However, while Naruto-chan holds the strongest, being the Nine-tailed fox, Killer B held the second strongest, the Hachibi Ushi-oni," then he opened his eyes, "And the person you saw was Uchiha Madara, the man responsible for the orchestration of the war and the real destroyer of Naruto's home."_

"_Wait a minute!" shouted Gray as he glared at the toad, "Three years ago you said that it was some guy, named Pein, the one that destroyed his home. Now you're that it was this guy who did it!"_

"_YEA! YOU LYING FROG!" shouted Natsu, flames forming around his fist;_

"_Lying is so unmanly!" shouted Elfman, glaring at the toad while Mirajane stood beside him with a crest fallen look;_

"_ALL OF YOU! SHUT THE HELL UP!" shouted the guild master with authority, making everyone silent out of fear from the master's anger;_

"_Pein was the one that destroyed Naruto-chan's village, that was true, but it was Madara, who orphaned Naruto-chan," clarified Fukasaku, earning gasps from some of the guild members, "On the day of his birth, Madara ambushed Naruto's parents in order to free the Kyuuubi from Naruto's mother and gain control in order to use it to attack the village, but that plan was foiled by his father as he broke Madara's control of the fox and managed to injure the man. However, Madara managed to escape, but the Kyuubi was already on a rampage," Fukasaku closed his eyes once more as he told the story, "His father knew, that in order to stop the fox, he needed to re-seal it back into a human host."_

"_So he sealed into his own son," gasped Lucy, causing Erza to gasp as she pieced the pieces together, remembering when Naruto told her of the bijuu sealed within him;_

"_Wait, Naruto said that the Fourth Hokage died as he sealed the nine-tails inside of him," said Erza as her eyes widen in realization, "Are you saying that his father-"_

"_Was the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze," responded Fukasaku, as he opened his eyes and stared at Erza._

"_And he never knew about it," whispered Mira as she recalled when Naruto had told them that he never knew his parents;_

"_He found out who his father was during his fight with Pein after he lost himself into his rage and damaged the seal that held the beast back as he tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra in his anger," informed the toad, "But from what Naruto-chan told after he came back from fighting Pein, the Yondaime had appeared in his mind as he sealed some of his essence when he sealed the Kyuubi into Naruto-chan and fixed the seal."_

_After finishing his summarization, Fukasaku finally began to take notice at the child that was hiding behind Erza's skirt. Raising an eyebrow, he motioned for Kushina to come forward;_

"_Child, could you come closer," asked the toad sage softly._

_Kushina looked up to her mother for help, but she saw her mother nodding softly. Nervously, the child walked towards Fukasaku;_

"_I won't harm you tadpole, I promise," soothed Fuka as he inspected the girl closer and saw the similarity traits that reminded him of Naruto. Looking over the child, he stared straight at Erza;_

"_Is the child his?" asked the toad sage_

_Erza just nodded in confirmation. Fukasaku turned to the child once again with a soft smile;_

"_Tell me little tadpole, what is your name?"_

"_Kushina," responded the child_

_Fukasaku blinked for a few times before he chuckled, earning a few glares from the guild, before he smiled fondly;_

"_May I ask what's so funny about her name?" asked Makorov in a steeled voice, but the toad just shook his head;_

"_I didn't mean no disrespect, just that I never thought you would give her that name," replied Fuka;_

"_And what's so special about that name?" questioned Erza with a raised eyebrow._

_Fukasaku just looked at the red-headed mother with a fond smile;_

"_Kushina was the name of Naruto's mother," responded the toad, earning a look of surprise from Erza._

_Then Fukasaku clapped both of his webbed paws together and placed them in front of him, creating a small puff of smoke as a small box appeared in front of him. Looking at Kushina, he motioned for her to take it;_

"_Child, this box contains two things that your father values with all of his being and by right, I believe you should have it," informed the toad sage as he saw the little girl reaching for the box and slowly opened it, causing her to gasp when she saw what the box contained._

_Erza slowly approached her daughter and kneeled besides her, managing to see a three prong kunai with markings at the handle on the bottom portion of the box. On the top portion held a picture of a couple holding each other. Reaching for the picture, Erza took it as she held it in front of her and her daughter. Gray, Natsu, Mirajane, Elfman, Happy, Lucy, Cana and team Shadow Gear were curious about the picture Erza held in her hand and somehow, they managed to look over her shoulder without falling on top of her._

_In the picture was a man who had the same hair style and color with matching eye color as Naruto, hugging a very pregnant long haired, red headed woman. The man had his arms wrapped around the woman's waist._

"_Are they Naruto's parents?" asked Erza as she looked up towards the toad, receiving a nod in return._

_Turning towards the guild master, Fukasaku bowed in respect;_

"_Master Makorov, I thank you for your hospitality, but I must return and continue my search for Naruto-chan," said the toad respectfully;_

"_You're welcome Fukasaku, but what do you mean continue your search for him? Has he disappeared without a trace?" asked the old master, receiving a nod in response;_

"_That is correct, after his battle with Madara, I could no longer sense Naruto-chan's chakra signature. I waited a few days to see if it would re-appear after resting, but nothing," replied the toad with a heavy sigh, "I went to the village where Naruto-chan was residing before his battle to ask for his whereabouts, but I only found the Hachibi's container. I asked him if he knew what happened to him, but all he remembers was Naruto-chan using a mixture of chakras and using the bijuudama to kill Madara once and for all before he was blown off by the shockwaves of Naruto-chan's attack and losing consciousness." (2)_

"_He's alive and he'll come back to us."_

_Both, Fukasaku and Makorov turned towards Erza who was looking at them with those same eyes as before;_

"_Erza, how do you know that he is still alive?" asked Mira softly, but Erza just turned towards her with a sincere smile, surprising her;_

"_Because, he promised me he would come back to me," then she turned her sights towards Kushina, who was holding the picture in her hands with a few tears on her eyes, "And he never goes back on his word."_

**~ ' ~ End of Flashback ~ ' ~**

Since then, Fukasaku hadn't appeared in the guild or were any news of the missing blonde, but Erza still held strong in her belief of him being alive.

Suddenly blinking owlishly, Erza turned to her left, where she felt her daughter tugging at her sleeve;

"Momma."

"Yes sweetheart?" asked Erza tenderly and watched as Kushina pointed at a certain picture in the album;

"Is he my daddy?" asked Kushina as she pointed at a picture of a younger Erza, blushing with a small frown, wearing her armor as she was being held at the waist by a whiskered grinning blonde wearing orange clad with black shoulders and a black headband while giving the peace sign to the camera.

Erza smile fondly as she remembered that day.

It was the day Naruto had decided to join the guild and everyone threw a big party as a celebration.

"Yes Kushi-chan, that's your father," replied Erza, watching as her daughter turned towards the picture and traced her father's face with her finger tips;

"So that's Kushina's father?" asked Lucy with astonishment, "He looks like a carbon copy of his father if you just take away the whisker marks."

"Juvia thinks he's very handsome," admitted Juvia with a blush, till she got very nervous and looked towards Gray with a bigger blush, "Not handsome as you Gray."

Gray just shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to admit that he was a little peeved that Juvia found the blonde idiot attractive.

"I wonder how strong he is now," wondered Natsu till he pumped his fist into the air, "As soon as I see him, I'm going to fight him and kick his ass!"

"AYE!"

"Naruto sure was pretty attractive three years ago," said Mirajane as she approached the table, having finished her chores on the bar as she sat down next to Kushina and stared at the picture, "I wonder how handsome has he gotten during his stay on his homeland," then turned towards her red-haired friend with a sly grin, "You would know since you already saw him, don't you."

Erza just smirked at the ivory haired girl as she chose not to comment, but the blush on her cheeks was enough to answer for her. Then watched Kushina took out the picture of Naruto's parents from her pocket and placed it next to picture of her and Naruto. Sensing her mother's gaze, she turned towards Erza with the brightest of smiles;

"Pappa's mommy and daddy are part of our family too," said Kushina, astonishing those around the table.

Mirajane just reached and pulled Kushina into a hug as she kissed her cheek, causing Kushina to try and get out of the hug as she comically struggled, causing the others to laugh at the scene.

Erza smiled softly at her daughter before she turned towards the page where her child had placed the picture of Naruto's parents, next to her picture;

"_She truly has your heart Naruto-kun,_" thought Erza fondly.

**~ ' ~**

Two weeks have passed since Naruto had awaken from his five month coma and thanks to Wendy's magic and the Kyuubi's healing abilities, he was able to get back on his feet within a couple of days, much to the astonishment of Roubaul, Wendy and Carla. Thankfully, while Naruto was still bedridden, Roubaul managed to make spare clothing that consisted of some sort of black vest, with matching color ninja pants that looked similar to Naruto's. His boots however, were salvageable and were fixed to look good as new. (5)

However, during those two weeks, Naruto stayed true to his word as he was led by Roubaul to Nirvana's location. Once they arrived, Naruto didn't waste any time as he began preparing the ink, mixing it with his blood to prepare the seal. Once the ink was ready, the blonde made six clones and handed each a small bowl containing the ink, instructing them to stand in the formation of the orichalcos and each created six similar stone boulders (4). Once in formation, the clones grabbed their brushes and began to carefully draw the kanji for the seal on the boulders and dispelled themselves once their task was completed.

Once Naruto received the memories of all six clones, Naruto began a series of hand signs till he was done and chanted the name of the seal.

Roubaul watched in awe as he saw some sort diamond shaped hexagon with two of the triangles smaller on each side began to connect with each point at the boulder each, right where the kanji were written. Once each corner of the hexagon connected, two circles began to surround the area, kanji writing appearing in between as they glowed on the growing and with a final flash of light, the seal had become activated.

Naruto supervised his work and saw that the seal had been a 100% success as he showed Roubaul the glowing kanjis on the boulders before they disappeared from sight, making the boulders blend in with the forest.

Satisfied, Roubaul knew that his task was complete as they both turned to return back to the guild and tell Wendy the truth, something he wasn't looking forward to, but it was a must for he could not keep on deceiving the young dragon slayer;

Once they arrived, they were welcomed by Carla, Wendy and the who guild;

"Welcome back Master," greeted Wendy cheerfully

"Thank you, Wendy-chan," said the old master, then the master kneeled in front of her to one knee as he placed his hands softly on her shoulders, "Wendy, there is something you need to know."

"What's that master?" asked Wendy curiously

Roubaul began to tell Wendy the truth about him and Nirvana, and how his people killed each other as they were affected by Nirvana's magic, leaving him as the sole survivor of the catastrophe and how even when his body perished, his spirit remained, watching over these lands for four hundred years;

"And now, thanks to Naruto, my task is complete," finished Roubaul as he began to cancel out the illusion he had created.

Naruto stayed silent as he watched Wendy witness the members she had come to consider family disappear before her eyes;

"Magna! Pepel! What is this . .? Why are you . .?" cried Wendy with tears beginning to appear before her eyes;

"Everyone!" cried Carla, as she too, could not believe what she was seeing;

"NO! YOU CAN'T . . . YOU CAN'T JUST DISAPPEAR!" shouted Wendy with tears falling down her cheeks;

"I must apologize for deceiving you all this time Wendy," said the old spirit as small spheres of light began to appear around him, "All the members of this guild were but an illusion that I created," then he looked towards the sky with a saddened look, "In order to watch over Nirvana, I lived alone in this abandoned village, until seven years ago, a boy asked me to watch over you and I agreed after seeing his sincerity. And so, I created a guild of illusionary companions."

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS!" shouted Wendy with her eyes closed, tears falling down her cheeks nonstop after she witness the last of her companions disappeared.

Smiling softly on his kneeling position, he wiped a tear away from her eye, causing her to look at him with sadness;

"Wendy, you and Carla no longer need to be accompanied by illusionary companions," then pointed behind her, right where Naruto was standing;

"During his stay, I saw you two formed a bond of companionship and friendship," smiling proudly at the girl, "You have found a true companion in him."

Standing up on his feet, Roubaul took a few steps back, as he too began to disappear;

"Your future awaits you . . . It is only just the beginning," were his last words as he was almost completely gone;

"MASTER!" shouted Wendy as she jumped towards her master, but it was too late as he had vanished from the land of the living, his words being carried by the winds;

"_Naruto Namikaze . . . thank you so much and please . . . take care of Wendy and Carla . . ._"

Looking at the spot Roubaul was standing, bowed in respect to the old master;

"I promise on my life, I'll take care of Carla and Wendy in your stead," vowed the blonde.

"**Where will you being going now, brat?**" questioned the Kyuubi within his mind;

"_Home,_" replied the blonde as he looked up towards Wendy, he saw that she was on her knees, with Carla being strong for her, although he could tell she was trying to hold back the tears. Silently approaching her, the blonde kneeled on one knee as he placed his hand on her shoulder, gaining her attention as she turned to look at him over her shoulder, giving her a sad smile;

"It is always sad to part with those with whom you love," began Naruto, as he remembered when he parted from his loved ones three years ago, "But I will help you bear that sadness. Come with me and you and Carla will never be alone anymore."

Sniffling, Wendy wiped her tears away;

"Where to?"

Naruto simply smiled softly towards her as he replied;

"To Fairy Tail."

.

.

.

.

CUT!

Wow, I cannot believe it, but I almost made myself cry while writing this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it as well and answer the question as to what happened to Killer B.

Now here's the A/N;

Oreikarukosu no Kekkai is the seal of orichalcos from yu gi oh. I tried my best to describe it, but it didn't go too well.

B was knocked out due to his injuries and the backlash of the Bijuudama

The face that Kushina makes is the same face that Puss in Boots from Shrek makes. If that helps in trying to imagining her pouting face.

The boulders are similar in shape to the cactuar stones from FFX for those who have played it, you know what I'm talking about.

The vest and boots are the ones that Auron from FFX wear, just minus the coat and neck cover.

And I know I pretty much got rid of the whole Nirvana arc, but bear with me, since this story is coming to close in either one or two more chapters.


	5. Chapter 5

Before I begin this chapter, I would to say to put your worries to rest to those that feel that I'm abandoning my stories. They WILL be finished, but at a set pace. For those who read "Avatar of Four Dragons", you know that I don't go one episode at a time. I try to incorporate them into the flow and sometimes I have to re-write a complete episode. I'm not bitching or anything, just saying to be patient due to the fact that I try to make the story enjoyable.

Other than that; I want to say thank you for the readers who have read my stories and leave good comments. I really appreciate it.

(#): A/N at end of chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the mangas or the mangas themselves.

.

. .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

His Arrival, Her Peril;

His Fury, Her Shield

It had been three days since Naruto, Wendy and Carla left the Worth Woodsea and headed towards Fairy Tail as they boarded a boat to go around the mountains of Fiore. When Wendy asked as to why they couldn't travel over the mountain, Naruto replied that going through the mountains would have take almost three weeks worth of travel and that by ship, it would have taken at least a day and a half to reach Hargeon Town. He continued by explaining that once they would reach the town, they would take a train to Magnolia town, where the guild was located at, and that it would take less than a day to reach Magnolia. And true to his word, when the ship had set sail, it had taken them at least a day and half to reach the port of Hargeon. The trek itself was satisfactory for it allowed Naruto to finally relax, both physically and mentally, for he longer felt the pressure of the war or looking over his shoulder each passing day, not knowing if Madara was going to suddenly appear.

To him, it felt as if he had closed the last chapter of his life in the Elemental Nations and was about to begin anew, with the woman he loves and his daughter;

"_My daughter . ._" thought Naruto with a small smile as he walked down the plank of the ship with Wendy and Carla in tow, heading right away for the train station, "_I still can't believe that I'm a father._"

"Wait up Naruto-san!" shouted Wendy as she tried to keep up with the blonde while Carla simply used her magic to cast her wings and fly.

Hearing her fall behind, Naruto just grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head;

"My apologies Wendy-chan, I'm just anxious at the thought of finally being home," apologized Naruto as he watched Wendy taking deep breaths as soon as she caught with the blonde.

Catching her breath, Wendy looked at the blonde with a curious glance;

"You sound like you haven't been there for a while," commented the sky dragon slayer, with Carla giving the blonde a suspicious look.

Naruto smiled sadly as he looked at her then looked towards the direction of Magnolia Town;

"I haven't been home for the past three years," replied Naruto, causing both of them to widen their eyes;

"Why not?" asked Carla, curiously.

Naruto sighed, knowing that he was going to have to tell her of his absence from Fairy Tail. Looking towards the two, he gave them a small smile in return;

"Let's go to the train station and buy the tickets, on the way to Magnolia I'll tell you both as to why I left Fairy Tail three years ago," said the blonde, "Sound fair?"

Both, Carla and Wendy, looked at each other before they looked the blonde and nodded.

Soon after that, the three of them arrived at the train station, where they purchased their tickets and boarded the train and walked to their respected cabin. No sooner than they sat down on their seats, Carla turned towards the blonde with a demanding glance;

"Ok blondie, now spill. Why did you leave your guild three years ago?" demanded the exceed with her eyes closed;

Naruto just sat there quiet, as he collected his thoughts on how to break it down on them without causing them to think that he was insane. Then without a word, Naruto did a couple of hand signs and softly placed his hand on the wall of the cabin.

A kanji suddenly appeared on the wall after the blonde retracted his hand and caused the whole room to glow softly for a bit, causing the two of them to tense up, believing that Naruto was going to do something bad, but the blonde simply raised his hands in a none menacing way;

"Relax, I just placed a silence seal on the wall," said Naruto, causing to look at the blonde nervously while Carla glared angrily;

"Why would you need to sound proof the room!?" growled the white cat, but Naruto turned towards her with a serious look on his face;

"Precaution, I don't know who may be listening and if they hear of my origins, it could end up bad," answered the blonde.

"Na-Naruto-san, you make it sound as if you we-weren't of this world," commented Wendy with a stutter.

"That's because I'm not," was the blonde's short reply, causing both to look at him with shocked eyes, Carla more since she knew of Earthland's the parallel world;

"Are you from Edolas?" questioned the exceed, but Naruto just shook his head;

"No, I'm not from there either," responded the blonde, "I'm from a completely different dimension from the two. I left Fairy Tail three years ago to head back to my world and homeland," closing his eyes as he finished his sentence.

"But why?" questioned Wendy, "The way you say it sounds like as if you had an obligation, not because you wanted to return."

Naruto just stared at the girl with a surprised look;

"**That girl is sharp,**" commented Kyuubi within the blonde's mind, giving said chakra being a mental nod in acknowledgement;

"You're correct Wendy," admitted Naruto, "I left because my home world was in a war, a war created by a mad man that wanted to rule the world through a massive illusion and I, along with another eight jinchuurikis or hosts, were hunted down like animals so he could achieve his goal."

Wendy's and Carla's eyes widened in shock and fear. Fear for they had never seen war, but from the look on Naruto's eyes, it was clear that it was hell on earth. Then Carla shook her head as she recalled something the blonde said;

"Wait a minute, by what do you mean hosts?" questioned the white exceed, "Do you have something sealed within you?"

Naruto nodded his head as he leaned back against the couch;

"In my world, there were these beings called the bijuu, nine massive beings made out of pure chakra or energy, - whichever you want – with different number of tails," told Naruto, watching as Carla and Wendy were sitting at the edge of their seats as if it were a scary story, "The number of tails determined the tail beasts strength, one tail, which being the weakest of the nine, to the nine-tails, being the strongest of the pack," then his eyes hardened, "Overtime, people found ways to bind the tailed beasts into human hosts, but that only brought out the dark side of humanity, for the jinchuurikis were treated as if they didn't deserve to exist. Shunned, hated, beaten, broken so their humanity was to be casted and be used as weapons."

Their eyes showed the horror at the blonde's description of their treatment, then Wendy leaned forward, unsure to ask, but ask she did;

"Which beast do you do you have sealed inside you?" questioned Wendy with genuine curiosity;

"The strongest of the nine, the Kyuubi no Yoko," replied Naruto, causing their eyes to pop out of their sockets at the size of dinner plates.

"If they were seen as weapons, how come you managed to maintain your humanity?" questioned Carla, watching as the blonde's eyes softened;

"Because, after the Kyuubi was sealed inside of me by the current leader of my village at the time, his predecessor came back into power and opposed anyone that proposed of turning me into a weapon," was his reply, but Carla's curiosity wasn't satisfied;

"Why though? He must've had some motive," argued the cat

"Because Sandaime Hokage, the predecessor, was close to the Yondaime Hokage, who was my father," was Naruto's reply, watching the two as if they were about to have a heart attack, "My father sacrificed his life to save the village by sealing the nine-tails within me."

Then his face turned serious;

"There's more to it thought, the nine were just pieces of power that were separated long before my time or the time of my village. The nine tailed beasts were once one being, the Jubi."

Their eyes widen even more at this;

"The difference between the nine and the Jubi was that when the Rikudo Sennin, the sage that brought the art of ninjutsu and genjutsu, separated the Jubi's into its nine beings, he created them where they could think for themselves and be a rampaging, mindless beast like the Jubi was."

"How was he able to do that thought?" asked Carla, intrigued by the sage's ability.

"He was able to do so because of a special bloodline that mutated his eyes and gave him an almost god-like ability, having the ability to create form and life, was one of them."

Their eyes could not widen anymore, but they could not believe that such a person could wield such power due to just a mutation of the blood. Then Carla eyed the blonde suspiciously;

"How do we know that you're not making this up?" questioned Carla as she crossed her arms, while Naruto just looked at her with a grin;

"Because, I can show you the seal that contains the nine-tails inside my body," replied Naruto, then he looked to the side, "Although, I would not show it for it would be too awkward."

Raising an eye brow, Carla looked at the blonde;

"How come?"

"Because the seal is placed on my abdomen and I'm not going to look like a pedophile just to satisfy your curiosity," was the blonde's reply.

Wendy sported a blush on her face, despite being twelve; Roubaul had given her the talk about the birds and the bees. Carla, however, turned towards her ward;

"Wendy, turn around and close your eyes," commanded the white cat

Naruto's and Wendy's eyes widened comically;

"WHAT!" shouted the two.

Carla turned towards the blonde;

"I want to see the seal with my own eyes," was Carla's defense, "Your story sounds too farfetched to believe," turning towards Wendy once more she ordered, "Turn."

Begrudgingly, the sky dragon slayer did as she was commanded and turned as she placed her hands over her eyes. Once noting that Wendy wasn't able to take a peek, the white cat turned towards Naruto once more;

"Let me see the seal," demanded the cat, but Naruto gave her a pout;

"Do I have too?"

His only response was a stern glare;

"Fine!"

Begrudgingly also, Naruto slid down the zipper of his vest, showing the many scars he had gotten during the three year war, but his most noticeable ones were the seven stab points given by Madara on their final battle. Carla held back a shiver when she saw the many scars the blonde's body sported, then she saw him close his eyes as he brought out some of his chakra, causing black ink markings with a spiral in the middle to appear slowly on his stomach;

"Satisfied?" asked the blonde, only to receive a nod in response. Zipping his vest close, Naruto leaned back once more against the couch just as Wendy turned around.

"Now, I understand that the ten tails was once a single being before he was separated into nine beings by this . . . Sage of Six Paths?" questioned Carla, getting a nod from response, "But what I fail to understand is how the man that was hunting you and the other hosts down, was going to use the ten tails to control the world and caused you to return to your world."

Naruto stayed silent for a few minutes till he leaned forward by placing his elbows on his knees;

"This man planned to become the host of the ten-tails, giving him sufficient power to do away with his plan, but also, he was the leader of an organization, whose sole purpose was to capture the jinchuurikis, and on his organization was a man that had the same bloodline as the Sage of Six Paths," then he closed his eyes, "This man destroyed my whole village and to protect me, my sensei and the Godaime Hokage, tried to send me off into a summons realm, but the it didn't work and caused a rift in the dimensions, landing me here, on Earthland, right outside of Magnolia, where I was found by Fairy Tail," taking a deep breath, he continued, "During my stay at Fairy Tail, I didn't know that my village was destroyed, but those were the happiest moments of my life," Naruto re-opened them, a faraway look in his eyes as he looked out the window, watching the scene pass by as the train continued its course, "They welcomed me with open arms, treated me as one of their own," then he chuckled, "Which was awkward at first since I spent most of my life, prior arriving at Fiore, being scorned, hated, beaten and humiliated," then his eyes half closed with a sincere smile on his face, "Then I met her."

"Her?" asked the two of them.

"Erza Scarlet," answered Naruto, "The woman who I fell in love with when I first laid eyes on her," then he looked towards the ground with a sad look, "But things didn't last as one of the elder summons found me and told me of what had happened to my village. I was devastated, but mostly angry because I wasn't able to do a thing since the attack happened right before I was sent off."

"And you left everyone behind to get revenge," stated Carla softly, which earned a bitter cuckle from the blonde;

"If you would've told me that three years ago, I would have denied it, but the reality was that. I was seeking revenge," admitted Naruto.

Meanwhile, Wendy was looking rather pensive, trying to figure out as to where she had heard that name before;

"Erza Scarlet . . . that name sounds familiar," said Wendy out of the blue, making Naruto chuckle;

"You might know her by the nickname I gave her three years ago," grinned the blonde, earning a confused look from the two;

"What nickname?"

"Titania."

At the mention of her nickname, their eyes widen comically once more;

"You mean THE Titania!" shouted Wendy, earning a nod from the blonde, "The same Erza Scarlet who is an S-Rank mage of Fairy Tail and is rumored to have a child!"

Naruto winced at the mention of her . . . their child;

"Yes the same one, although, the rumors of her having a child are true," confirmed the blonde, "I'm the father of her daughter."

Their mouths fell down, but then Carla managed to compose herself quickly before she glared heatedly at the blonde;

"You left to fight a war while she was pregnant! You Bastard!" screeched the exceed, but her rant was cut short when Naruto shot her a deadly glare;

"I recommend you think before you speak and gather your facts first," warned Naruto, "When I left, I had no idea she was pregnant, otherwise I would have stayed with her and my child."

"And you came back for them?" asked Wendy, slight fearfully due to the blonde's glare;

"Yes," responded Naruto without hesitation.

The cabin went silent after that. No one spoke a word as the sound of the train making a thump noise as it went on its rails till the train began to slow down and the three of them looked out the window, quickly noting that they had arrived in Magnolia as they saw the sign that said 'Welcome to Magnolia Town' at the exit of the train station;

"Looks like we have arrived," stated the blonde as he got up from his seat;

"Nah, really?" was Carla's smart ass reply, but only received a glare from the blonde, returning a smirk to him as the three of them walked out of their cabin into the corridor of the wagon.

After going through the officers of the train station, the three of them were able to finally step foot into the town of Magnolia, making Wendy and Carla awestruck at the fascinating sight of the town;

"It's beautiful," whispered Wendy as she gasped at the lively town

Naruto chuckled as he approached her and her cat companion;

"Looks like we arrived in time," stated Naruto as he saw the people going about their business as he saw the decorations being placed all over the city, "Looks like the town is going to have a festival."

Wendy suddenly had stars in her eyes when she heard him mention festival;

"Can we go Naruto-san!" pleaded the sky dragon slayer while Carla just huffed as she crossed her arms, but he could tell that she also wanted to go from the look in her eyes;

"Alright, we'll go to the festival once we make a stop at Fairy Tail," agreed the blonde and the three of them began to walk into the town, but suddenly stopped when a loud explosion happened far within the town.

The three of them looked at the direction the explosion had occurred;

"What was that?" asked Wendy, somewhat frightened, but Naruto didn't answer as he narrowed his eyes;

"_I don't like this,_" thought the blonde as he felt his gut clenching, a feeling he felt during the war that proved right most of the time. Without warning, Naruto wrapped each arm around their waist;

"Hang on," warned Naruto as he used his shonobi abilities to jump from roof to roof towards Fairy Tail at high speeds.

**~ ' ~**

Prior to Naruto's arrival;

The town of Magnolia was in high spirits as it was that time of year once again; The Harvest Festival.

Even the members of Fairy Tail were into the mood as they also ventured into town to gather supplies and help around with the decoration while Erza showed Kushina around the around the town, since Makorov stated that she should spent some time with her daughter. As they walked around the town, watching the people greet them while some gave Kushina a treat, which she accepted happily as she kindly thanked them. Seeing that it was time to head back, Erza lifted her daughter and headed back towards the guild, where she found out by Mirajane about the Fairy Tail Beauty contest.

Feeling her competitive side rise, she asked the master if he could watch over Kushina while she participated, which the master happily agreed.

The Festival finally begins with the Miss Fairy Tail contest being the first event. with Lucy hurrying towards it and Juvia being revealed as a participant too. Max Alors acts as the announcer and presents the contestants one after another: Cana Alberona first appears and uses her card magic to infatuate the crowd. Juvia then uses her water magic to charm the crowd. Mirajane then ruins the mood by doing a few weird transformations but when Erza Scarlet uses her re-quip magic, a Lolita outfit, since she only let one person to see her body, but it was enough for the crowd get back in the mood. Levy then appeals to the crowd and then Bisca Mulan as well. Then, when Lucy finally begins her act, Evergreen suddenly appears, claiming to be the rightful winner, and turns Lucy to stone through the use of her Stone Eyes, revealing to have done the same to all the other contestants, much to everyone's dismay.

Laxus and the rest of the Thunder God Tribe appear as well before the shocked eyes of the other guild members. Laxus states that they'll be playing a game to decide who the strongest in Fairy Tail is and that the petrified girls will be kept as hostages, to prevent their guildmates from breaking the rules of the game. Then Evergreen stepped forward as she goes on to explain that their fellow Fairy Tail Mages will have to find and defeat Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe in three hours or the girls will meet their demise. The battlefield shall be the entire town of Magnolia. Having announced these things, the three of the four opponents disappear, leaving Laxus behind with a sinister grin. Everyone tensed up when they saw his grin, but Laxus was too quick for them as he lightning flashed beside the master and abducted Kushina from the Master's side.

Makorov roared to leave the girl out of it, but his grandson didn't listen as he disappeared with a screaming Kushina. The guildmates start leaving the place, rushing around to search for them in town. Makarov tries to leave as well, but finds that he is incapable of doing so, with the area having been previously surrounded by one of Freed's enchantments, preventing stone statues those older than 80 years from leaving the enchantment. Makarov is then forced to remain behind while his children search for the opponents. The Master asks Reedus Jonah, who remained behind since he was afraid of Laxus, to find Porlyusica in the East Forest, since she may have a cure to release the girls from petrification.

However, Fights between comrades to escape Freed's enchantments rage on everywhere in town, with Makarov and Natsu, who is also unable to leave due to Freed's enchantment, looking on as more than half of Fairy Tail is defeated by internal disputes.

Elsewhere, some guild members run across the Thunder God Tribe: Reedus, prevented from leaving the town by one of Freed's enchantments, gets to meet the leader of the Tribe himself and faces defeat at his hand while Gray is pitted against Bickslow. Shortly afterwards, Evergreen defeats Elfman, causing more shock to Makarov, Natsu and Happy.

As Reedus is easily defeated by Freed, Laxus, through the use of a Thought Projection, appears before Makarov, Natsu and Happy. He expresses wonder at the fact that Natsu actually thinks he's bluffing about killing the prisoner girls, and says that, with both Natsu and Erza out of the way, none of the members can stand up to his Thunder God Tribe.

The others object that there's still Gray and state that Laxus shouldn't underestimate him. However, their belief was soon destroyed when the enchantment showed Bicklow's name as the victor, much to the dismay of Makarov, Natsu and Happy, and to the joy of Laxus;

"You were saying old man!" boasted Laxus as he sneered at his grandfather, "I told you that no one can't stand up to us! Might as well admit defeat and surrender Fairy Tail to me old geezer."

Natsu having heard enough, he growled at the S-rank lightning mage with a pointing finger;

"You bastard! You ambush the few strongest mages by turning them to stone and you kidnap Kushina to gain an advantage an you still proclaim to be the strongest!" shouted Natsu, "You're just a damn coward!"

Laxus just scoffed at Natsu's statement;

"So typical of the weak to make excuses when they know they don't have the power to defend themselves," sneered the lightning mage while Makorov steely glared at his grandson;

"_As much as I agree with Natsu, Laxus is right,_" thought the guild master, "_Without Gildarts or Mistgun here and Erza turned to stone, there isn't anyone strong enough to confront Laxus, especially with the power he carries within him._"

"I will defeat you Laxus, I don't care if every bone in my body is broken, I will not give up!" shouted Natsu with determination, but the lightning mage just laughed out loud;

"Did your deserting friend feed you that bullshit nonsense," taunted Laxus, earning a heated glare from Happy, Natsu and Makorov, "It's pathetic enough that all of you cry for his departure every year," then he hatefully glared at the three before turning his sights towards the girls, especially Erza, "But it's more pathetic that you fools hope for his return when the most likely case is that that fool died like the weak maggot that he truly was when he first arrived at Fairy Tail."

Natsu was a passionate person. Past experience had shown that the dragon slayer was always susceptible to wild outbursts of frenzied anger when taunted, and would succumb to even larger fits of rage if anything even _remotely_ related to Fairy Tail was insulted in any way. When Natsu is insulted, the ambient landscape usually ends up being painted with swathes of flame. When Natsu's friends are insulted, explosions are more likely.

Natsu had simply never understood 'restraint'.

It must be said, however, that no matter how susceptible Natsu was to 'anger', 'hatred' remained stranger to him, not even Jellel's actions had provoked Natsu to 'hate'.

It was an unpleasant surprise then, for Laxus to find Natsu glaring at him . . . not in hate . . . but _something else_;

"What do you know of Naruto?" asked Natsu quietly, lowering his head once more, "Are you glad he's not here to fight you? Are you jealous that he's stronger then you? . . . Perhaps . . . . Do you believe you are superior?"

Natsu lifted his head to glare at Laxus once again. This time Laxus was relieved to see that the alien presence had left Naruto's eyes. Nothing but familiar rage dwelled there;

"ABANDON YOUR ARROGANCE LAXUS!" roared Natsu, "You will always be weaker than Naruto!? If he were here he would crush you like the weak bastard you truly are!?"

Laxus didn't like Natsu's outburst, not one bit, as he stayed silent and disappeared from view, leaving them as they turned back towards the enchantment and watched the number diminish;

_"We're running out of time,_" thought Makorov with his sights fixed on the enchantment, "_if __Natsu can't participate then it's a problem, Erza is out . . . wait that's it!" _

"Natsu! where's Gajeel?" asked Markarov desperately as he turned to the pink haired dragon slayer;

"I don't know gramp's" answered Natsu as he looked around. The sound of someone crunching on objects brought their attention to a table.

"Gajeel!" exclaimed Natsu, Gajeel however was busy eating the holdings of the table

_"Yes!" _thought Markarov.

"Oi! You idiot! Stop eating! Get going and fight!" shouted Natsu comically;

"Shut up, Salamander! I'm going!" muttered Gajeel as he tried to exit the enchanted area. Only to fail with both Natsu and Marakrov's eye's bulging outwards at the sight.

"Oh no . . ." muttered a worried Markarov. _"This is bad, time's running out . . . we need to get Natsu and Gajeel into the fight, getting the potion to heal the other's is a no go now. Darn it all!_" then he turned to Erza's pertified form, "_If only Naruto were here._"

**~ ' ~**

With only two people (Natsu and Gajeel) left, but confined within the barrier, Natsu thinks they should depetrify Erza, believing he could do so with his fire, much to the others' alarm. Before anyone attempted to stop him, Natsu used his fire to open up a crack on Erza's petrified face, but the results are good, as the girl is then freed from her stone prison, with her punching Natsu for burning her. She was freed due to her Magical eye having absorbed half of the offending Magic. Makorov approached the red head, attempting to tell her what was happening, but the look in her eyes made the master feel a shiver run down his spine, especially when she informed the master that she had heard everything.

She was pissed.

But he was suddenly overjoyed as one more fighter for Fairy Tail joins the fray, but then the number went rapidly from three to four, as she was followed by another: Mystogan who makes his appearance as well, readying to take part in the battle as he entered town.

Erza wasted no time as she left the guild in search for her daughter and to make Laxus regret of ever putting his hands on her, but was suddenly intercepted by one of his bodyguards;

"I'm taking your title Erza" spat Evergreen with a glare, "The great "Titania", so worthless."

Erza just looked on emotionlessly as she didn't answer back, observing her opponent, causing Evergreen to lose her patience;

"If you're not going to make the first move, then I will!" shouted Evergreen as she flew toward's Erza, who readied herself but was caught off guard when Evergreen deviated her course and flew around her in a circle. Erza looked confused as dust sparkled around her, noting Evergreen's smirk.

"Yōsei Bakudan: Guremurin!"

A massive explosion encompassed the area as Evergreen flew out of the smoke and surveyed the damage around her;

"Is that all the great Erza has?" mocked Evergreen with a sneer, however, she made the mistake of turning around as she narrowly dodged a sword strike to her hair, but only managed to cut the water container in two.

"My beautiful hair!" screamed an enraged Evergreen before she turned around to glare at a frowining Erza.

"Is that the best you can do?" asked Erza with a cold voice.

"Don't get cocky!" snarled Evergreen as she lifted her glasses and used her magic to turned Titania to stone once more, but Erza simply closed her left eye as her right eye absorbed Evergreen's magic.

Evergreen frowned upon seeing her petrifaction spell unsuccessful;

"I wasn't aware that you had an artificial eye," admitted Evergree, then grew a smirk as she formed an X with arms, "Then I'll just have to use a different kind of magic."

Erza looked on, waiting for her opponent to make her move;

"Yōsei Kijū: Reburahōn!"

A barrage of needles emitted from Evergreen as Erza dodged each one of them;

"Impressive speed but what would happen if I double them?"

Twice the amount then fell into Erza, this provoked her to deflect and dodge twice as fast, making Evergreen laugh gleefully as she saw Erza struggle, her joy growing as she saw some of the needle's pierced her skin, causing her to kneel on one knee with her head down while she used her sword for support;

"From now on, the name of "Titania" belongs to me, I'm the one true fairy!" boasted Evergreen and then looked at Erza with a mocking smile, "Too bad your lover isn't here to witness this," Erza's head suddenly shot up when Evergreen brought Naruto into the struggle, "I would've loved to see the look on his face when he sees how weak you truly are."

By now, Erza was giving Evergreen a death glare.

**~ ' ~**

Meanwhile, said blonde managed to cover half way through the town as he roof hopped, ignoring the cries of Carla and Wendy for him to stop, however, when he arrived at the plaza of the town, Naruto saw three bodies laid on the ground unmoving. Without warning, the blonde jumped off from the roof and landed on the center of the plaza and carefully placed Wendy and Carla on their feet, only for them to stumble on their feet as they still felt the dizziness from the roof hopping.

"Naruto-san . . ." began Wendy but stopped when she saw the injured bodies of the mages.

Naruto slowly approached one of the downed mage who was faced down and kneeled beside him. The young man was wearing something that look like western attire with a poncho, although it looked like battle damaged at the moment. Turning him over, he saw he wore the Fairy Tail stamp on his chest, although he didn't recognize the person; (1)

"_He must've joined after I left,_" thought Naruto as he reached out for the young man and sat him up, swatting away the young man's dark hair from his eyes as he slapped his cheek lightly;

"Ugghh . . ."

Sighing in relief, Naruto then looked around him and saw that not far from him, were the beaten, unconscious forms of Jet and Droy, who didn't change much during his absence;

"Who . . . are you . . .?" heard Naruto, then looked down to see the young man with a dazed look;

"Rest, you're all banged up," recommended the blonde, but then the young man's eyes suddenly widen up and tried to stand up, but his body protested as it shot waves of pain through his nerves;

"I said relax," ordered the blonde firmly and watched the young man relax, "What's your name and tell me what's going around here."

"I'm . . . Alzack Connell," wheezed Alzack, "Laxus formed a coup d'état . . . to force the master to resign . . . as master . . . of the guild," then coughed the teen while Naruto's eyes widen, "Took the girls . . . and Kushina hostage . . . forced us . . . to fight each other."

Naruto's eyes widen when heard the name of his deceased mother;

"_She named our daughter after my mother?_" wondered the blonde, but then shook his head as he concentrated at the task at hand;

"What about Master Makorov? Why isn't he in battle?" questioned the blonde further;

"One of . . . Laxu's bodyguards . . . casted an enchantment . . . preventing the master . . . and Natsu from leaving the guild," Azlack managed to reply as he continued to wheeze.

Naruto was about to ask him more questions, but then, a boastful laugh was heard throughout the open plaza.

Looking up, Naruto saw a figure standing on top of a building, looking down at them as if they were nothing;

"**That maggot already rubbed me the wrong wide,**" growled Kurama inside his mind;

"_Agreed,_" thought Naruto back as he helped Azlack stand up on his feet with an arm over his shoulder;

"Bickslow."

"I take it that's one of the Laxus's bodyguards," stated the blonde without looking at Azlack, but felt the nod.

The figure then jumped off the roof and landed on the ground, allowing the blonde to get a better look at traitor's comrade. Bicklow's upper body is covered in a dark, mildly fitting cloth covered in vertical white stripes, which extend up to his head to cover it in a tight hood, exposing only his hands and face. The upper part of the latter, however, is almost always obscured by a metal visor reminiscent of a Medieval sallet, which comes covered with eight small, elongated holes, with four of them in front of each of his eyes, allowing him to see. He wears large armbands with matching size shoulder pads, each adorning skulls on its center. His waist is circled by a simple dark band, which holds up a massive waist-guard made of cloth, which comes in four long, light-colored pieces, each adorned by a dark "_X_", reaching down below his knees. Under such waist-guard, he dons a pair of extremely baggy, loose dark pants, with each leg being adorned by a pair of lighter-colored belts crossing in an "_X_" formation. Such pants are tucked inside a pair of light, armored greaves.

"And who might YOU be?" questioned Bickslow maniacally as he pointed towards the blonde, but Naruto didn't reply as he helped Azlack reach the wall and softly sat him down against the wall.

Naruto turned to go pick up Jet and Droy, but surprised to see Wendy and Carla struggling as they pulled the still unconscious boys towards him. Not wanting her to struggle anymore, Naruto walked towards her and lifted both boys over his shoulder and placed them next to Azlack.

Wendy was trying to catch her breath for she wasn't used to lifting someone heavy;

"Wendy," she heard him call her name and turned towards his retreating form, walking towards the strange armor wearing mage, "Could you please heal their wounds while I take care of our uninvited guest."

Wendy just nodded her head and walked towards the three downed Fairy Tail mages.

Meanwhile, Naruto stood a couple of feet away from Bickslow, who seemed angry at the fact that he was ignored, with emotionless eyes;

"I'm gonna ask you again weakling, who are you?" demanded Laxus's bodyguard, until he spotted the blonde's Fairy Tail mark on his right palm, "Ah, so you ARE a mage of Fairy Tail, but that still doesn't tell me as to who you are."

Naruto simply grinned;

"If you wish to know my name, defeat me and then I shall tell you," replied the blonde with his grin still on his face, but then he dropped it as he suddenly got serious, "Now tell me where Laxus is keeping Kushina and I won't hurt you as much."

Bickslow just laughed as he pointed at the blonde;

"And why such interest in Titania's brat?" questioned Bickslow, but only received a deadly glare from the blonde before he shook his head, "Anyway, you truly must've been away for a long time if you cannot tell that you're outclassed," boasted the knight looking mage, before he placed his hands on his hips and shook his head once more, "But, you're hilarious so I'll humor you, if you MANAGE to defeat me, I'll tell you where the big boss is keeping the brat, although I doubt you'll beat me since you don't seem like much."

Azlack, Wendy and Carla were watching the exchange with curiosity (Azlack and Carla), worry and slight fear (Wendy).

"Your friend might be strong, but Bickslow is on a whole 'nother level," stated the gun mage without taking his eyes off the two, "He managed to defeat some of the strongest A-class, low S-class mages by himself when they went up against him. I fear that your friend might've bitten more than he can chew."

"If you truly believe that, then you're severely underestimating him, especially now since they just managed to piss him off," stated Carla without taking her eyes off either.

Azlack didn't reply as he stared at the exceed for a few seconds before he return his sights back at the oncoming fight.

Naruto slowly slid into a stance;

"**Show him who he's fucking with brat,**" said the Nine-Tails gleefully at the upcoming beat-down;

"Gladly," muttered Naruto as he suddenly called forth on his chakra as he created a small blue shroud around him while he leaked his killer intent.

**~ ' ~**

"Maybe I should take him of your hands and show him how a real woman is supposed to please a man," Evergreen continued her taunt with a sick smile on her face, "That is . . . of course, if he's even still alive that is."

Having heard enough, Erza jumped into the air and re-equipped two more sword's in the air as she grabbed them with her toes. Evergreen seeing her opponent going for the attack once more, she launched her Reburahon at the red-head, but Erza just deflected each of the needles aimed at her with perfect precision. Evergreen's eyes widened as she looked on at the sight of Erza deflecting her attack, but her eyes widened even more as the red-head flipped all the sword's and kicked the swords on her toes towards Evergreen.

The Raijinshu member was shocked at the outcome as she was pinned to the wall as Erza landed on the ground and slowly walked up to her with a stone face look, but she could tell that the red-head was fueled by rage.

"Your still a member of Fairy Tail, so I will honor that," announced Titania before her glared hardened even more, "But if you believe that you can take the name Naruto gave me without a fight, you're sorely mistaken," Erza now stood a couple of feet from her opponent, "Now release the one's under your spell and you will not be harmed," ordered the red-head, but Evergreen just scoffed at her.

"How naïve you are," laughed Evergreen, "My stone eyes power have one more power, you know; control remote," her eyes glowed softly and suddenly Erza felt herself stiffen. With a crazed look, Evergreen stared at Titania, "Now take off all of your clothes! Prostate yourself naked before me! If you do not, then I will reduce every petrified woman to dust right now!"

Erza just stood there taken aback before she lowered her head and seemingly seemed to complied as her magic began to disperse her outfit, leaving her bare shoulder and showing the top portion of her impressive bust, but just as quickly, she re-equips her heaven's wheel armor, dozens and dozens of swords floating around her, shocking Evergreen;

"If you value winning over the value of your own life, then I'll kill you myself and avenge those maiden's who are going to crumble to dust," stated Erza coldly as she lined her swords behind her, causing Evergreen to panic and scream as Erza went for the strike, only to be silenced with a hard punch to the face.

"That's for bringing Naruto into our fight and for trying to strip me of my clothes," said Erza with her fist still on Evergreen's face, "Only one person has that right and you aren't him."

Erza retracted back her fist and watched as Evergreen was hanging limp against the wall, her swords being the only things holding her in the air.

Once she re-quipped her Heave Wheel's armor back, Erza was about to continue on her search for the master's grandson and her daughter, until she felt a unknown, yet familiar raise of energy followed right away by a strong explosion occurred, creating a strong fissure which shook the whole town and a large mushroom cloud appeared in the middle of the town.

"What the . . ?" muttered Titania as she stared at the cloud from a distance, however, her thoughts were occupied at the energy she felt;

"I've felt that energy before, but from where . . ." said Erza as she went through her mind, till it clicked: Naruto's battle against the masked man. Her eyes went wide as a smile appears on her face, tears of happiness threaten to fall but she held them at bay;

"You came back," whispered Erza with happiness, wanting to go over to see him, to hug him, to kiss him, to beat him up for leaving her, but she knew at the moment that their little reunion would be put on hold, for their daughter needed both of her parents at the moment. Before she sprinted in a random direction, Erza looked back towards the cloud once more with the brightest of smiles;

"I knew you would come back to me, Naruto-kun," she said to herself as she took off in her search.

**~ ' ~**

**Moments before the explosion;**

Back on the guild, Master Makorov was pacing back and forth, wondering as to why Erza was taking too long to defeat Evergreen while Happy watched Natsu and Gajeel were trying to force their way out by pounding on the invisible wall, each pound of their fist irritating the master more till he finally had enough and yelled at the two;

"Will you idiots stop that pounding! It's not helping!?" shouted an irritated Master until the enchantment showed Bickslow's name fighting someone, however, they could not tell who it was for instead of showing an opponent's name, it was blank, but the slot number had gone up to five.

"What the hell!" shouted Natsu, "Who is that bastard fighting?! Some ghost!?"

"If you cannot say anything smart Salamander, then keep your trap shut!" growled the iron dragon slayer as he got on his fellow dragon slayer's face;

"What you did say you bastard!?"

While those two were fighting, the master was staring at the blank slot with curiosity;

"_An unknown member?_" thought the master as he tried to recall any of his members being away for long, "_There aren't that many mages that have been away for long during missions, besides Gildarts and Mistgun has already arrived,_" closing his eyes as he crossed his arms, trying harder to remember, "_Who could it be . . ._"

Then suddenly, his eyes quickly opened in shock as he looked up and stared the nameless slot once more;

"_Could it be!?_" thought the master with hope, something that wasn't missed by the three;

"Master?" questioned Happy, but then a crack was heard, snapping their attention to the petrified girls;

Markarov heard the sound as he turned around to find the girl's of his guild returned to normal and not stone anymore. A smile crossed his face as Natsu and Gajeel looked on in shock at the de petrified maiden's.

"What happened?" asked a confused Mirajane as she looked around, seeing that Cana, Levy, Juvia, Lucy and Bisca were in the same state as her.

Markarov then went up to them with Gajeel and Natsu explaining to them what had transpired in the time that they had been petrified shocking the lot of them.

No one noticed the fiery dark look that had fallen on Mirajane's eyes when she learned of Kushina's kidnapping.

"Master, I think I can rewrite his enchacement's!" stated Levy. Natsu looked at her with happiness.

"You can do that Levy?" which she nodded her head, "Then come on! Let's get started on it already!" shouted an enthusiastic Natsu. Levy was about to follow Natsu until without warning, a sudden energy spike occurred and a strong explosion followed; causing a strong fissure which shook the town and a large mushroom cloud appeared at the center of the town.

"What was that?" asked Cana, as she and the rest looked at the ascending smoke, nobody noticing their master staring at the slot intently, waiting for a name to appear.

**~ ' ~**

**Moments before the explosion;**

At the cathedral where Laxus was hiding and monitoring the fights between his group and mages of Fairy Tail was also curious when he saw Bickslow fighting someone unknown, but suddenly scoffed, despite that he was still raging at the fact that Evergreen lost to Erza;

"It doesn't matter who that fool is, he'll fall against Bickslow just like the rest of those weaklings," stated the lightning mage confidently, however, it was forgotten when he felt the cathedral shake when an explosion occurred, followed by the aftermath quake.

Laxus quickly turned to one of the massive windows of the cathedral and saw the same growing mushroom cloud that the members at Fairy Tail were seeing;

"Who . . !?" growled Laxus as he turned towards his own enchantment chart and saw that Bickslow had in fact been defeated and waited for a name to be revealed.

**~ ' ~**

Back where the explosion had occurred;

Naruto was standing in the middle of destroyed plaza, his chakra still surrounding him as he stood completely unharmed with his arm stretched out, holding a semi unconscious Bickslow by the neck. His medieval headpiece was gone, showing his face covered in blood as it dripped down his head, covering most of his hair as well, his attire was mostly shredded by the blonde's relentless attacks as it revealed a part of Bickslow's right upper and mid body, his whole left sleeve was gone, one of the shoulder pats had a hole where the skull was while the other was destroyed. His body covered in bruise and cuts as some of the cuts were bleeding and dripping down his body. Wendy, Carla and Azlack stared at the blonde with a hint of awe and fear;

"Who or what the hell is he . . .!?" asked a flabbergasted gun mage;

"_Is this the power of a jinchuuriki!?_" questioned Carla in her mind franticly as her whole body shook;

Beside them, Jet and Droy were trying to regain their focus after being awoken harshly by the explosion and due to their bodies still being injured after their fight with the gun mage.

"What the hell happened?" muttered Jet as he rubbed his head

"I don't know, all I remember was confronting Freed before being forced to fight against Azlack," replied Droy as he tried to stand up and looked to the side, finding a fear stricken Azlack with a cat like Happy, except white, with a long blue haired girl. The two of them having the same expression as their guildmate;

"Yo, Azlack what's got you spooked?" asked Jet, only to said person's hand shockingly pointing ahead of him. Both mages turned towards where the gun mage was pointing;

"What you pointing . . . at . . ." said Droy only to stop at mid sentence when his eyes saw as to who it was standing in the middle of the damaged plaza;

"J-Jet . . ."

"Y-Yeah, Dr-Droy . . ."

"I-Is that wh-who I th-think it is?"

"I-If yo-you see a bl-blonde haired guy wi-th whiskers and bl-blue eyes like Ku-Kushina's, then yea it-it's him."

"Where. Is. My. Daughter?!" demanded the blonde darkly as he ignored the two and saw the mage's shocking look before he coughed small amounts of blood, due to his ribs being broken;

"Fu-Fuck you," wheezed Bickslow with a grin, but then grunted in pain as Naruto applied more pressure on his neck before he was slammed hard into the ground.

Upon releasing his opponent, Naruto stood and turned to walk towards Wendy, Carla and the rest of the gaping mages.

"_Hang in there Kushina, I'm coming,_" thought the blonde with determined fury;

"Wh-Who are you . . ."

Naruto suddenly stopped and turned towards the beaten form of his opponent;

"My name is Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, the maelstrom of Fairy Tail," replied the blonde.

**~ ' ~**

Back on Fairy Tail, the nameless slot on the enchanted wall began to glow softly, making Makorov tense up with anticipation as he saw the glow began to lessen and little by little, a name began to appear.

Once the glow had completely dispersed, Makorov's eyes widen in shock before a grin broke out and shouted to the heavens;

"YEEESSSSS!"

His shout gained the attention of the people inside who came out rushing to see what had happened;

"What happened Master?" asked a worried Mirajane

"Did Bickslow lose?" asked Cana

"Have you finally gone senile old man?!" shouted Natsu

"Shut the hell up Salamander!?" shouted Gajeel as he punched Natsu in the head.

Makorov turned towards his children, surprising them as tears were falling down his eyes while showing a big grin;

"My children, this battle has shifted into our favor and soon, Laxus will be stopped once and for all," declared the master.

Mirajane approached their master with a disbelief look;

"Master, who was it that defeated Bickslow?"

The only answer she got was the master turning towards the enchanted wall and pointed at the name that was shown on the slot.

Mirajane and the rest looked up and most of them gasped in shock as they could not believe it.

'Victor: Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki'

Mirajane placed both of her hands over her mouth as tears began to form;

"He's back . . . He's back . . ." muttered the barmaid as she took a couple of steps back before she turned towards Cana an engulfed her into a hug, "He's back, Cana-chan! He's come home!"

Cana returned the hug as she stared at the name, a happy smile as she happily shed tears of joy;

"_Ni-san, you've finally come back to us,_" thought the card mage happily

"HELL YEA! NOW LAXUS IS GONNA GET THE BEATING OF A LIFETIME!" shouted an overjoyed Natsu as he pumped his fists into the air, followed by Happy;

"AYE, SIR!"

Lucy, Biscal, Juvia and Gajeel, who held a crying Levy, saw the affection they had for this person and how he meant a lot to them. However, not every was overjoyed by the blonde's return.

**~ ' ~**

Back at the cathedral, Laxus was cursing up a storm. Never would he have thought the noob he met three years ago would have turned this powerful three years later. Slightly calming down, Laxus slowly walked towards his chair and looked up ahead with a dark grin;

"So . . . you have finally made your return, deserter," commented Laxus, "That's alright, for no matter what, you too shall fall by my hand . . . all I need is an ace in the bag . . ."

The lightning mage slowly began to laugh crazily as he stared at the cage where a crying Kushina was being held at;

"Mommy . . . Daddy . . . please save me. . ." pleaded the little red head as she clutched the prong kunai that belonged to her father and grandfather closely to her chest with tears falling down her cheeks.

.

.

.

.

Cut!

Well . . . Naruto has finally made his presence known in Magnolia and shit is about to hit the fan.

A/N: I don't know much about Azlack since I just began reading the manga, so I made it where he and his future wife joined Fairy Tail after Naruto's departure.

Also;

What will happen when Laxus and Naruto come face to face and finds out that Laxus has his daughter hostage? I don't know

How will Kushina will react upon seeing her father for the first time in three years? I don't know

How will Erza and the rest of the guild react upon seeing the blonde having no quarrels of punishing Laxus near death? I don't freaking know

Why in the blue hell am I asking ya'll this questions? Shit, even I don't have a fraggin' clue.

PS: I would like to thank Shuredda Sora for helping me modify some parts of the story and for being my beta.

Stay tuned till next chapter;

Kyu no Ken out!


	6. Chapter 6

I know it's been cruel of me for having you guys waiting on this chapter, but I can't help it if I get sick with walking pneumonia with this fucking rainy weather we have had a couple of weeks ago. Other than that, glad you guys liked the previous chapter. Without further adieu, here's part two of the previous chapter.

On another note, I just recently noticed the mistake that was done. I know some of you are pissed with the chapter and I appreciate those who gave me criticism to work out the flaws of the chapter. However, I'm going to ignore a certain jackass who placed the review as a guest named 'J' because one, I think he doesn't know the line between real life and fiction, as another reviewer commented, which by the way, whoever you are, thank you for making that review. Two, I find a waste of my time and health recovery to deal with you. Its simple, don't like? Make one yourself.

But back to the error, this chapter was cut. I asked my little brother to post the chapter for since I was still in the hospital and just got released today and read the reviews. It's not a complete chapter, although in a way, I'm glad it was. Gave me time to read some of the critic reviews and hopefully, I managed to address them.

(#): A/N at end of chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the mangas or the mangas themselves.

.

. .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

_Previously on Her Shield, His Sword;_

"_So . . . you have finally made your return, deserter," commented Laxus, "That's alright, for no matter what, you too shall fall by my hand . . . all I need is an ace in the bag . . ."_

_The lightning mage slowly began to laugh crazily as he stared at the cage where a crying Kushina was being held at;_

"_Mommy . . . Daddy . . . please save me. . ." pleaded the little red head as she clutched the prong kunai that belonged to her father and grandfather closely to her chest with tears falling down her cheeks._

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

His Arrival, Her Peril;

His Fury, Her Shield Pt. 2

"Tsk, Evergreen should've just finished Erza off instead of playing with her," growled Laxus, although he was still glaring at the name of the person that had defeated Bickslow that was still being displayed on the enchantment. Narrowing his eyes in anger, his growl darkened, "Those fools now probably think my defeat is certain now that the deserter has returned."

Suddenly, he began to hear footsteps coming from the entrance of the cathedral and got off his throne to confront the intruder, only to find Freed approaching him with a neutral look on his face;

"Erza's simply too strong for Evergreen to begin with," replied Freed as he eyed his leader, then turned towards the cage where Kushina was being held at, "And considering you kidnapped her child, there's nothing worse than a mother's wrath when the child is involved," turned his sights back on Laxus, but more fixated at the named showing behind Laxus, "You should have sent myself or Bickslow to battle her, but unfortunately, Bickslow was also defeated by this unknown mage."

"What are you doing here Freed?" demanded the lightning mage passively only to get a raised eyebrow in response;

"The game is over, Laxus," stated the enchanter, "With majority of the hostages freed, the master will never give in."

Laxus didn't say anything as he stared at his subordinate with an emotionless face, however, Freed's eyes widened as he was able to notice a light flinch in his posture, managing to cover his face as a lightning bolt struck the wall beside him;

"It's not over," stated Laxus coldly as he turned back towards his 'throne', "If you want to chicken out now, then get lost. I don't need weaklings in my Fairy Tail."

Finding his voice, Freed glanced at his leader;

"What do you plan on doing?" questioned the swordsman with uncertainty, only for Laxus to turn back at him with a crazed grin;

"I'm going to activate the Hall of Thunder," was the reply, making Freed's eyes widen in shock;

"_The Hall of Thunder . . . You would actually go that far,_" were his thoughts, "What about Erza and this Uzumaki?"

"The old man's resting his hopes on Mistgun along with that red-haired skank and her foolish lover. I'll deal with Mistgun myself," then turned towards the caged Kushina, who backed into the corner of her cage, growing scared when she saw his stare, "As for Erza and Uzumaki, I have something special planned for them that'll break their spirits."

Freed suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine;

"What are your intentions for that girl?" asked Freed only to receive a dark glare from Laxus;

"That is none of your concern, what should you be concerned with is making sure that the filth that is Fairy Tail be eradicated," was Laxus's cold reply, making Freed gasp in shock;

"Kill them!? We may be fighting them right now, but they're still mem-" he was interrupted abruptly by Laxus when he shot another lightning bolt beside him;

"DID YOU NOT HEAR MY ORDERS!?" roared Laxus as lightning danced around him, scaring Kushina even more, "THIS IS A PURGE! IT ISN'T OVER UNTIL ONE SIDE IS OBLITERATED COMPLETELY!"

Freed simply stared at his leader, not knowing what to do until he calmed down. Laxus closed his eyes and took a deep breath only to re-open them with a emotionless look on his face;

"Now that we have come this far, I fear there's no turning back. I will follow you down this path . . . even if it leads to hell," proclaimed Freed before he turned and walked out of the cathedral, "I will accomplish my mission. I will be aiming to kill, don't get cold feet now."

Laxus chuckled darkly as he watched his most powerful member walk out;

"Very good, Freed the Dark. It's time you showed them your real power," murmured Laxus as he went to the enchantment.

**~ ' ~**

Back on the plaza;

Soon after Bickslow had lost consciousness, Naruto walked towards the wall where he had left the injured Azlack, with a now awakened and gaping Jet and Droy, who were healed by Wendy.

"Glad to see the two of you are fine," stated the blonde with humor due to the two having their mouths almost hitting the floor with a stupefied look on their faces.

"Yo-You're back! You're really back!" shockingly stated Droy, Jet however, after getting out of his shock, suddenly punched Naruto square in the jaw. It didn't affect the blonde much, but was still shocked by the action;

"You selfish bastard!" shouted the speed user, "How dare you not keep in contact after you left us!? Do you know how difficult it was for us, for Erza, not knowing if you were even alive!?" Wendy and Carla stayed quiet in the background, watching as Naruto lowered his gaze to the ground, "Do you have any idea the anguish Erza felt after your departure, especially after Kushina was born since she didn't know if you were going to even come back at all and having the fear of one day telling her that her father left them to die fighting some war!? DO YOU?!" (1)

At the end of his rant, Jet was huffing as he tried to catch his breath, waiting on an answer from the blonde.

"Jet . . . you along with everyone else back at the guild have the right to be mad, even spiteful, towards me for the decision I took three years ago," replied the blonde as he looked towards Jet, "You're right, it was selfish of me leaving, a decision I have regretted for the last three years, but it was my duty to stop him as the last remaining soldier of my village," then he glared at his guild comrade, "However, if you believe that it didn't affect me being away from Erza, then you're mistaken."

Droy quickly got in between the two, trying to defuse the confrontation. He really didn't want his childhood friend looking exactly like Bickslow at the moment;

"Jet, relax! Right now we need to be fighting Laxus, not amongst each other," stated Droy as he pushed Jet away from Naruto, "Besides, this is really between him and Erza, we cannot get involved."

Jet, who had managed to catch his breath, looked at his friend then at the blonde once more. Taking a deep breath to calm down, he looked at Naruto;

"He's right, Laxus and his group are our objectives and I'm sorry for shouting at you, I was out of line," said Jet as he extended his hand, which Naruto shook in acknowledgement;

"It's alright, as I said, you and everyone else have a right to be angry at me, but I will face them once I deal with Laxus," said the blonde back.

However, before anything else could be said, Freed's enchantments changed appearance, showing Laxus's colors, a skull with a lightning bolt on the right side.

**~ ' ~**

Back on the guild;

Makorov and the rest were surprised at the sudden change; however, their biggest surprise was Laxus's announcement;

"_Can you hear me old man? Fairy Tail?_"

Natsu gritted his teeth in rage at the sound of that man's voice;

"Laxus . . ."

"_Since we lost one of our rules . . . I'm going to instate a new one; so as to keep this battle of Fairy Tail moving, I've activated the Hall of Thunder._"

"The Hall of Thunder!" gasped the Master as he began to sweat due to severe danger Laxus had brought.

"_Only one hour and ten minutes remain . . . come and find me if you fools believe you can defeat me *dark chuckle* or you can simply play nice and retire 'master'. Oh, and before I forget, Uzumaki . . . you better play by the rules as well while your brat is my 'guest', otherwise, she's going to be afraid of lightning for the rest of her life, hahahaha._"

The sound of his laughter was the last thing they heard as they enchantments disappeared.

"LEAVE KUSHINA AND THE CITIZENS OUT OF THIS LAXUS!?" roared the enraged master only for him to suddenly clinch his chest above his heart with his hand, causing everyone around him to worry as they saw him drop to his knees;

"Old man!/Master!" shouted everyone.

"He needs his medicine!" stated Mirajane urgently as she ran back inside to get the master's medication;

"At a time like this!" stated Brisca worriedly as she and Levy kneeled beside the master;

"Master, get a hold of yourself, please!" pleaded Levy

Then Mirajane came back with the medication, but she had a look of concern on her face that made everyone tense;

"Everyone, look outside!"

**~ ' ~**

Back with Naruto and the others;

They, along with everyone back at the guild, had heard the message and couldn't help but feel afraid at the lightning's mage announcement;

"Has Laxus completely lost his mind!?" exclaimed Droy as he, along with everyone else, saw the floating Lacrimas surrounding the town;

I can feel the amount of magic those lacrimas carry, and it's enormous," whispered Carla

"And if they were to go off, then the town will be engulfed in a storm of lightning strikes," summarized Azlack, however, the sound of retreating footsteps reached their ears and turned to see Naruto walking away from them;

"Naruto-san! Where you going?" shouted Wendy as she began to follow him, but suddenly came to a halt when she saw Naruto stop and made some hand motions at a rapid pace and slammed a hand onto the ground.

A big cloud of smoke enveloped the area, causing everyone who weren't prepared to cough violently as they inhaled a large amount of the smoke. When the smoke began to clear, everyone began to open their eyes as they were able to control their coughing fit, only to gasp in shock when they saw a massive toad with an eye patch as it overlapped the scar it had on its right side, standing almost as tall, if not a bit taller than Naruto, with a dark vest with the kanji for iron on his back in white. The toad itself had a massive hammer that looked it was used for crafting weaponry; (2)

"Hmm . . . So I guess the rumors of you being dead are false if you are standing in front of me, summoning me no less," said the toad with a deep voice;

"That they are Gamatetsu," replied the blonde in a voice void of any emotion, sending shivers down their spines upon hearing it.

"So what you summon me for brat?" questioned the toad as he stared at the blonde with his one eye, "The war is over and I don't see a reason for you to need your weapons."

"This is personal," was all the blonde said, causing Gamatetsu to narrow his eye at the blonde, staring right into his eyes for a couple of minutes before he made a gruff sound and brought his hammer down, causing a miniature cloud of smoke to appear, only to reveal a massive chest.

Wordlessly, Naruto approached the chest and opened it, reaching for its contents inside as he began to unzip his vest.

Wendy, Carla, Azlack, Jet and Droy were curious as to what the chest contained, although, after hearing the toad saying something about weaponry, they had a fairly good idea as to what the chest contained. When they saw the blonde reach for whatever it held, however, they were flabbergasted when they saw Naruto began to take off his vest as he had pulled out one arm while his other still remained inside the chest, but when he pulled it out, they saw that he had pulled out some sort of black armor vest that had belt like straps on the sides and on the chest area (3). Once the blonde had taken his current upper attire off, Azlack, Jet and Droy could only grimace as they saw the numerous scars the blonde had on his body, but the one most noticeable one was one that looked to be just above his heart. A fist size scar.

Naruto simply ignored the stares he got from his guild members as he put on the vest and tightened the straps. Once making sure it was secure, the blonde reached inside the chest once more and pulled out a pair of black forearm protectors with a golden band around the wrist area (3) with a matching color belt that held pouches on either side while one side held an extra pouch on the right side and strapped them on.

"You should be lucky that your old man gave me a copy of the blue prints for the haraishin kunais after he completed the jutsu so I could replicate them," grunted the weapon smith, "They were a bit tricky to make due to the seals, but I manage to make a good amount, so I modified the pouches by adding small seals on both of them to make the space within even larger."

"How many Haraishin kunais are we talking about?" questioned the blonde as he eyed a sheathed sword that lay at the bottom of the chest.

"Enough for you to destroy an entire platoon by yourself," replied Gamatetsu, shocking the eavesdroppers, however, the smith saw Naruto reaching for the sword and pulled it out of its sheath only to see a dull blade, causing the blonde to look at him with a questionable expression that clearly said 'explain', "I finished that sword a while back, but didn't finish it in time for you to use in your fight against Madara so I placed it in the chest," then he saw the blonde unsheathe the blade, carefully inspecting it, "The blade is crafted from the same material as my hammer. It is nigh unbreakable and light, although not much to an ordinary weapon user, however, on the hands of a wind user, this blade is extremely dangerous. Adding your wind chakra into it and you can make this sword sharper than any other sword in the world."

Then, out of the blue, the sound of something shattering reached their ears. Everyone looked up to find one of the lacrimas had been destroyed, but looking close enough, they also saw magic energy floating in mid air before it reformed into a thunderbolt and stroke in the direction of the guild;

"That one was headed towards the guild!?" exclaimed a worried Jet, causing Droy and Azlack to fret as well. Both fearing that a petrified Levy or Brisca were hit by the bolt.

The blonde sheathed the sword and quickly turned towards his shaken guild mates;

"I want the three of you to head back to the guild, help any guild members you find along the way," ordered the blonde before he turned his sights towards Wendy, "Wendy, my apologies for bringing you into this civil war, but I want you and Carla to accompany them and heal anyone they come across."

"What are you going to be doing?" asked Carla, managing to mask her nervousness at the situation;

The blonde simply strapped his sword on his waist before he turned towards Carla;

"I'm going to deal with Laxus myself," stated the blonde sharply, then reached into his second pouch on the right and pulled out a tag with markings on it. Kneeling down to one knee, he handed the tag to the exceed, "Listen carefully, once you reach the guild, place this tag on the enchantment, it'll self activate and destroy the barrier."

"How is a piece of paper going to break Freed's enchanted wall!?" cried Droy only to receive a glare from the blonde;

"In order for the enchantment to work, it must have codes hidden within. With this seal, it'll crack all those codes easily and break the wall, allowing everyone trapped within the guild to enter the battle," explained Naruto as he got up to his feet before he leveled a glare to the three of them, "I'm leaving Wendy in the care of the three of you," then he turned towards Wendy once more and his eyes softened when he saw how scared and nervous she was. In efforts of comforting her, Naruto placed his hand on top of her head and gave her a warm smile, "Don't worry Wendy-chan, this will all be over soon, I promise."

Wendy just nodded her head as she tried to show courage;

"Be careful, Naruto-ni-san."

Naruto nodded his head and watched as Wendy and Carla, along with his guild mates, headed towards the guild. Jet, however, suddenly turned back after taking a couple of steps, staring directly at the blonde;

"Naruto! Give Laxus a beating that he won't soon forget!" shouted Jet.

Naruto just stood there with an emotionless face till a small grin broke on his lips and signaled Jet with a thumbs up, watching the speed user turn back to catch up with the others.

Once they had disappeared from sight, Naruto's eyes turned cold and merciless as he turned his sights towards Bickslow. Gamatetsu watched as Naruto slowly approached the man and reached down for his neck using his left hand and lifted him up without effort, his feet angling off the ground as Naruto glared at the man;

"I'm going to ask you one more time, where is my daughter?" demanded the blonde coldly

"_So Fukasaku-sama wasn't pulling my leg went he told me of the gaki having a kid,_" thought the toad smith.

Bickslow just choked as he tried to laugh;

"You think . . . you're tough?" wheezed the mage, "You may . . . have defeated me . . . but Laxus will massacre you . . . heh heh heh."

The blonde just narrowed his eyes as he glared at the mage dangerously;

"For his own sake, he better be as strong as you say he is," growled Naruto as he began to squeeze Bickslow's neck, causing the mage to choke due to the lack of air as the blonde's killer intent rise, "Because if he isn't, he better start praying to the gods for mercy, because when I find him, he shall receive none from me!"

And with that final statement, Naruto cocked his right hand and delivered a thunderous punch to his stomach, the sound of bones breaking further was heard as it caused Bickslow to spit out blood as the breath was knocked out of him and fell into unconsciousness, having limp in midair as Naruto just held him in the air by the neck.

"_I haven't seen that much rage in him since he fought Pein,_" thought Gamatetsu ashe held back a shudder due to the blonde's aggressiveness, "_Whoever this Laxus person is, he is one dead man, for he is about to find out why Naruto is known as the demon of the fallen leaf._"

Seeing the mage unconscious, Naruto wordlessly and effortlessly, tossed Bickslow into the air in the direction of the guild.

"So you're going to partake in this little civil war," stated Gamatetsu as he watched the blonde walking away after the down mage was out of sight.

"Yes."

"Why?" questioned the toad smith, only for Naruto to stop and turn slightly to face the smith;

"Because that bastard has my daughter hostage," answered Naruto as his eyes softened, shocking Gamatetsu, "I've already lost my loved ones in Konoha and I wasn't able to do a damn thing about it," but just as quickly, they regained their fire, "I will not let my family be harmed if I have anything to say about it!"

Gamatetsu just watched as Naruto jumped to the nearest rooftop and sprinted in a random direction, chuckling before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke as he went back to the summon realm.

**~ ' ~**

Back on Fairy Tail;

After stabilizing the Master's sudden attack, he was laid to rest next to Brisca, who got struck by the lightning bolt after destroying it, on the medical room within the guild. Mirajane sat on the chair nearby the master, worried for the Master's health as she knew the seriousness of his condition and with his age, it could be catastrophic. Her thoughts then shifted to Kushina. Mirajane felt helpless as she brought her hands to head with her eyes closed, as if trying to shield herself. The thoughts of Erza's daughter being harmed at the hands of Laxus made her angry, she didn't have the will to fight anymore after the death of her sister, Lisanna, yet she was here allowing for another possible death.

"_We fight! Mira! We keep on fighting . . ._"

Suddenly, Mira's eyes opened in shock, echoes of the words Naruto had spoken to her after he learned of her sister's death and her unwillingness to fight . . . .

"_Keep on fighting to protect our loved ones and make sure no one else is taken from us ever again!_"

"Naruto-kun," murmured the barmaid as she looked out the window with her tear stricken eyes, but held a smile on her face, "You're right, we must keep fighting. Thank you."

Getting up from her chair, Mirajane quietly walked out of the medic bay and headed outside the building, coming into a scene where Cana and Juvia were about to leave to help he others fight Laxus, while Levi was using her magical glasses to accelerate reading to find the code to break Freed's enchantment;

"Wait!" shouted the barmaid, causing the rest to look at her in concern;

"Did something happen to the Master?" asked Lucy, everyone sighing in relief when she shook her head;

"No, I want to accompany you two, I want to fight," declared Mirajane, shocking those who knew of the reason she didn't fight or take missions anymore, "I know I haven't taken any missions after that incident, but I cannot stand here and watch with the possible chance of the same tragedy repeat itself with Kushina."

Cana, Natsu and Levi saw something had changed with their friend, but they had to figure it out later, for at the moment, someone who needed a major ass kicking, Fairy Tail style.

"Alright then, Levi you continue on trying to break the enchantment while Juvia, Mirajane and I look for Laxus," ordered Cana, taking leadership due to being the oldest member in their group. Then she turned her sights at the two dragon slayers, "After Levi manages to dispel the enchantment, catch up with us. We are going to need all the help we can get when confronting Laxus."

"But what about Naruto?" questioned Levi as she sat up on her knees, "He might be already be searching for Laxus."

"We don't know how strong Naruto has become or if has sustained any injuries from his fight with Bickslow," said Cana, "But we will stand by him this time and fight alongside him," turning towards Juvia and Mirajane, "Let's go."

The girls nodded and began to descend down the stairs, but they suddenly came to a stop when a whistling sound was heard.

"Where is it coming from?" questioned Natsu as the sound reached his ears;

Gadjeel was looking around, trying to pin point the source. He quickly noted that it wasn't coming from the sides but from above as he looked up and saw a small black dot descending upon them;

"Incoming!" shouted the iron dragon slayer, causing the girls to jump out of the way, just in time to watch the incoming object crash into the steps, creating a big dust cloud of debris.

Everyone waited with their guard up as they watched the dust beginning to clear and slowly approached whoever had crashed, only to let out gasps of shock to find an unconscious Bickslow, bloodied and beaten. Gadjeel was the first one to dissipate his stupor;

"I don't know whether to feel joy or pity," announced the iron dragon slayer, confusing those near him;

"What makes you say that?" questioned Levi as she turned to him;

"Joy that this Naruto guy is on our side, because from the looks of things, he's pissed. Very pissed," answered Gajeel without taking his sights off Bickslow's downed form, "Or pity, because once he faces that lightning jackass, there's no doubt that Laxus is going to get a beating far worse than him," finished Gajeel as he pointed at Bickslow.

Cana just continued to stare at Bickslow for a couple more seconds before she shook her head and ordered the other two mages to follow her. The three quickly left the guild in search of Laxus, leaving Natsu and Gadjeel to take care of Bickslow as they brought him to the med bay inside the guild while Levi continued on her search to break the enchantment;

"I still say we should've let that jackass lick his own wounds," muttered the iron dragon slayer as he came out of the room, Natsu following behind;

"Enemy or not, we do not abandon a guild mate," argued Igneel's son as he glared at his dragon slayer brother. Gadjeel said nothing as he went toward Levi's direction, but suddenly stopped when a scent hit his nose and began to sniff around;

"What the hell!? You farted or something!?" was Natsu's smart remark, but only to be shut by Gadjeel glare;

"You idiot! Don't you smell it as well?," he barked, causing Natsu to blink owlishly before he too began to sniff the air around him, his eyes widening as he recognized the familiar scent;

"What's going on?" asked Lucy as she came out of the building with Happy flying beside her;

"Another dragon slayer is approaching," muttered Gadjeel, causing Lucy's and Happy's eyes to widen, as he looked towards the guild's stairway.

The three of them began to hear the sound of running footsteps, growing louder and louder as it approached, revealing Jet, Droy and Azlack as they reached the final step, with a long, blue haired twelve year old with a white flying cat;

"Jet! Droy!" shouted Levi happily as she saw the two new arrivals, coming out to greet them;

"Levi! You're not petrified anymore!?" shouted the two idiots as they went to hug her.

Seeing that Levi was free from Evergreen's spell, Azlack approached Natsu and Lucy;

"Natsu, where is Brisca?"

Lucy slowly approached the gun mage;

"Brisca is in the med bay, she got struck by lightning after she destroyed one of the lacrimas," replied Lucy, feeling terrible as she saw the emotions going in his eyes.

"Can you take me to her?" asked Azlack lowly. Lucy nodded in return and led him into the building.

"But how you guys managed to break Evergreen's spell?" asked Jet as he looked at Natsu and Gadjeel, who just snorted as he crossed his arms;

"Erza fought Evergreen and defeated her after the idiot-"

"HEY!"

"-used his flames to break the weakened spell on her," answered Gadjeel, turning his sights at the young dragon slayer who tried to go through the gate of the guild, but was blocked by the enchantment, "You won't be able to go through, the idiot and I couldn't get out either."

That's when Carla pulled out the tag Naruto had given her and flew to the middle of the entrance;

"Stand back," was all she said as she placed the tag on the enchantment.

Everyone began to step back when they saw the markings on the paper tag began to glow, causing the enchantment to glow as well as the marking began to spread out throughout the enchantment until small cracks began to appear all over till all of a sudden, the enchantment shattered as if it were made out of glass.

Natsu approached the entrance of the guild with his hand out, trying to find an invisible wall, only to find nothing, making his eyes and everyone else's go wide;

"The enchantment is gone!" gaped Happy

"Guess Naruto wasn't playing around when he said that piece of paper would break Freed's enchantment," said Droy, causing Natsu and Levi to look at him with wide eyes;

"You saw Naruto!?" shouted the fire dragon slayer, "Where is he? Did he already find Laxus? How strong is he?"

Everyone just sweat-dropped at his last question, knowing the reason why he asked it in the first place;

"Yea we saw him," replied Jet, "We woke up from unconsciousness right after Naruto defeated Bickslow, that's how we met them and got that paper tag," pointing at Wendy and Carla.

"Who are they?" asked Levy

"I'm Wendy and this is Carla," introduced the sky dragon shyly while gesturing to the exceed beside her, who had her arms crossed, "Pleasure to meet you."

"You're the sky dragon slayer, aren't you?" asked Gadjeel as he eyed her, causing her and everyone else's eyes to widen.

"If she is, what's it to you?" demanded Carla

"Another dragon slayer! Cool!" shouted Natsu with enthusiasm as he pumped his fist into the air, causing Wendy's and Carla's eyes to widen.

"Levy, where's the Master?" asked Droy as he noticed that he wasn't anywhere to be found, causing her to look down casted;

"The Master had a sudden attack from his illness, aggravating it when Laxus had announced that he had activated the Hall of Thunder, and judging by how much pain the Master was suffering, it looks very serious," replied Levi, shocking her two teammates.

Wendy slowly approached Levy;

"I can help," muttered Wendy shyly, gaining everyone's attention;

"That's right!" exclaimed Jet as he snapped his fingers, "Naruto said you had healing abilities, maybe she can help."

"Can you heal him Wendy?" asked Levy hopefully;

"I will try my best," replied Wendy as she was led inside by Happy.

"But Jet, the Master could be dying right now, we don't know if she can really heal him," argued Droy

"She can heal him."

Team Shadow Gear turned towards Carla;

"How can you be so sure she can heal the Master?" asked Jet

Carla just narrowed her eyes at the speed user;

"Because if it wasn't for Wendy, Naruto wouldn't be alive right now," she replied, making everyone to gasp in shock, "When we found him, he was barely alive. His whole body was damaged, almost broken. If we would have found a minute later, he would've died, but Wendy managed to heal his wounds, although he fell into a coma for five months."

"What! He's been back for five months!" shouted Natsu only to be hit by Gadjeel in the head;

"Quit your fucking shouting salamander!?"

"Although, that's not what's important at the moment," said Carla, clearly ignoring Natsu's outburst, making Levy frown;

"Then what is?"

"That idiot had recently come out of his coma and is already heading into a battle that will clearly push him past his limits. The majority of his wounds have healed completely, but there's a chance that his stab wounds could re-open."

"St-St-Stab wounds?" stuttered Levy in horror as some color was drained from her face;

"Seven of them, all of them on his upper body and close to his major organs," said Carla softly, clearly remembering the stab wounds after Wendy had cleaned them, "They haven't completely healed and if he pushes himself, they may re-open."

Everyone turned silent as they hear this piece of news.

Natsu, for once, didn't say a word as he turned towards the steps of the guild;

"Natsu?" said Levi

"I'm going to go find Laxus and beat him," proclaimed the Salamander with a serious tone before he ran off in his search for Laxus.

Gadjeel snorted before he left, following a different direction.

**~ ' ~**

Meanwhile, Naruto was still jumping from building to building, trying to sense for any traces of Laxus, but he was unsuccessful;

"Where the hell could he be hiding," murmured the blonde as he jumped onto the next building, "Even in sage mode, I can't seem to find him, unless somehow he managed to mask his presence completely."

"**Brat, you do know there's a chance your wounds made by Madara may re-open again if you fight,**" stated the Kyuubi, interrupting Naruto from his thoughts;

"_I know and I don't care,_" replied the blonde mentally as he jumped on top of another building only to come to a stop as he touched one of his stab wounds on his abdomen, "_Rescuing Kushina is my only concern right now . . . although I'm curious as to why they haven't healed completely yet, you usually would have taken care of them by now._"

Naruto just heard the nine-tails growl;

"**That man's chakra is like poison and when he stabbed you, he laced his weapon with a great amount of chakra, that's why you fell into a coma and it took a good amount of time to heal,**" replied the Kyuubi.

"_So there's some remains of his chakra left?_" asked the blonde;

"**No, the chakra has been purged, but the damage done was severe,**" was his reply.

Naruto was about to ask him more question, but he quickly turned left, ahead of him. He sensed a sudden spike of energy/magic. Quickly entering his sage mode, he pin pointed the exact location of where it came from; three people were fighting in a two against one as the single person easily was over powering the two.

"**Your next victim?**" asked the nine tails with enthusiasm

"Yes," muttered Naruto as he began to glow in a yellow light and disappear in a yellow flash. (4)

**~ ' ~**

After Gray had awoken from his defeat by Bickslow, the ice mage went in search of any other Fairy Tail mages around the town. During his search, he found Elfman unconscious. After waking the sleeping giant, Gray helped him walk around town as the two had decided to search Laxus themselves and end this fight. However, they were unprepared when they crossed roads with Freed. Seeing that they had no choice but to fight, the two attacked him only for both of them to be slashed with the sword, enchantment markings appearing on their chests;

"A piece once defeated is thereafter forbidden from returning to the game," stated Freed coldly, "Those who break this rule shall be subjected to a fate worse than death."

His right eye suddenly turned pitch black with his iris glowing white;

"Yami no Criture: Pain"

"What the hell?!" remarked Gray as he began his body began to convulse

"My body feels strange," growled Elfman as his body began to shake.

Then suddenly, the two of them shouted as if they were being severely tortured.

Freed then wrote again with his sword;

"Yami no Ecriture: Fear"

Their screams became louder than before, but the dark mage wasn't finished as he enchanted for 'suffering' and 'pain', however, for 'pain', Freed slashed their bodies multiple times. Both of them feel to their knees, Elfman once again unconscious as he fell to the ground while Gray was still awake, maintaining to stay on his knees as he glared at the dark mage hatefully as he was about to deliver the finishing blow;

"Yami no Ecriture: Annihilation."

Gray just watched as Freed brought down his sword only for the ice maker to shut his eyes as he awaited the sword to end him, however, by doing so, he missed a yellow flash suddenly appearing before him, the sounds of swords clashing echoing throughout the bridge.

Hearing the Freed's sword being stopped, Gray slowly opened his eyes only to find a person wearing a black vest standing in front of him, blocking Freed with his own sword, His eyes got wider as he saw the blonde spiked hair being moved the gusts made by the clash of swords;

"You won't be killing anyone," said Naruto coldly as he used his strength to shove Freed back and allow Naruto enough time to gather his chakra into his blade, causing said weapon to glow as the wind began to circle the sword.

Freed seeing the incoming attack, he used his magic to rapidly create a barrier;

"Yami no Ecriture: Shield"

An invisible barrier appeared in front of him as the blonde swung his sword, a loud whistling sound erupting from the blade as it came down towards its target, creating a dust cloud upon impact with the barrier. Freed coughed as he stood on guard in case Naruto went for the attack within the debris, but was surprised to find the blonde passively standing while glaring at him.

Freed was about to charge for the attack, believing that his opponent was severely underestimating him, however, the crumbling sound of rocks stopped him on his tracks. Looking over his shoulder, the dark mage began to shake as he saw that most of the bridge was destroyed. The only part that had survived the blonde's attack was the one when he casted his carrier.

"Naruto . . ." muttered Gray in disbelief before he scoffed and looked at the blonde with a pained grin, "Took you long enough to come back."

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life on my way here," was the blonde's smart ass reply as he slightly turned around and showed the ice maker a grin of his own. Then he turned his sights back on the dark mage, all humor gone as they were replaced with cold blue eyes, "As for you, I'm going to ask you the same question I asked your buddy, where is Laxus keeping Kushina?" demanded the blonde with a steeled glare.

Freed turned towards the blonde with a hint of fear and disbelief in his eyes, but then it turned into a glare as he eyed the blonde and quickly used his sword to write some enchantments, making them appear in front of Naruto;

"Yami no Ecriture: Containment"

A circle began to glow golden around the blonde as it shoot up, encasing the blonde wholly as he eyed the enchantment that was displayed in front of him;

"Naruto!" shouted Gray as he tried to get up to help him, but his injuries didn't allow it as he fell to the ground;

"You won't be able to break out of this, no matter how strong you are," said Freed calmly, but watched as the blonde simply stabbed his sword into the ground, make some hand signs and wordlessly slammed his hand, now etched with glowing markings, on top of the enchantment.

Naruto's seal quickly activated when placed, causing Freed's enchantments to glow as well, showing the cylindrical containment that surrounded the blonde until the seal glowed brighter and shattered the enchantment, causing the dark mage to look in shock;

"Impossible!" gasped Freed

"Your enchantments have hidden codes in them, my seal is able to find those codes easily and shatter any enchantment you make," explained the blonde as he grabbed his sword once more, his eyes growing colder and fiercer, "Now, I'm going to ask you again, Where. Is. My. Daughter?"

Freed, however, charged at the blonde with his sword poised for the attack, only for him to suddenly stop once again when an explosion occurred into the further parts of the town;

"Caldia Cathedral," muttered Gray through the pain his body was feeling;

"So someone has engaged the asshole into a fight," mused the blonde, as he too, stared into the direction of the cathedral till he turned his sights back towards Freed, "Then I'll have to finish quick if I want to have my turn at pounding that bastard."

Without warning, Naruto dashed towards Freed with his sword laced with wind chakra.

**~ ' ~**

A few moments earlier before Naruto engaged Freed in combat;

A couple of blocks away from the church, Natsu continued on his search as he tried to find Laxus through his scent, while on another part of town, Erza, who was also a couple of blocks away from the church, was still searching for her daughter and the bastard that took her;

"_Kushina, where are you?_" thought Titania desperately as the worry for her daughter began to get the best of her.

"Erza!"

Erza turned back to see who had shouted her name, only to find Cana, Juvia and Mirajane running towards her, coming to a stop to catch their breath once they reached her;

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Erza, relieved to see her friends free and unharmed.

"We've come to help you find Laxus and get Kushina-chan back," replied Cana once she managed to regain her breath, "And to stop this madness before the Master's condition worsens."

Erza grew in concern at that;

"Is the master alright?"

"I gave the Master his medication before we left, his pain was stabilized from what I could see, but he still needs medical attention," Mirajane answered this time, causing Erza to look at her in surprise. Noting her surprised look, Mirajane smiled softly at her friend while a dark aura began to encircle her, "I will not let Laxus harm my goddaughter, if he does, he's going to find out why I was feared."

"Mira . . ." muttered Erza, giving her a grateful smile, but quickly it disappeared as they felt Laxus's and Mistgun's magic energy rising as a loud explosion was heard from the direction of the cathedral.

"It came from Caldia Cathedral," muttered Cana, getting nods from the two S – rank mages.

Then another explosion occurred as a large dust cloud appeared southwest from their position, causing the four of them to turn;

"What could be happening over there?" muttered Cana as she eyed the cloud suspiciously

"Juvia feels four signatures coming from there, one is Gray-sama's" said Juvia, suddenly growing concerned for Gray. Mirajane suddenly gasped in concern as she recognized another signature;

"Elfman!"

"Juvia don't recognize other two," informed Juvia, while Erza immediately recognized one of the last two unknown signatures, a confident smile adorning her face;

"Both of them will be fine," assured Erza as she took direction towards the cathedral;

"How do you know that?" asked Cana in worry and frustration at Erza's sudden change, "Gray and Elfman could be fighting Freed right now, we need to go and help them," but said red-head simply turned back at them with a confident grin;

"I say not to worry because Naruto is there with Gray and Elfman. He won't let any harm fall those two," assured Titania, only to have her claim confirm as she felt her lover's energy spike followed by another explosion.

Cana, Juvia and Mirajane just shivered when they remembered the battered form of Bickslow;

"For whoever fights fishcake, Juvia feels pity," murmured Juvia, Cana and Mira nodded, causing Erza to look at them in confusion for a few seconds till she shook her head and ran towards the cathedral.

Upon reaching the cathedral, the four of them had noticed that Natsu had arrived at the same time as them. Nodding to each other, the five of them burst into the church as the slammed open the doors;

"Laxus!" shouted Erza and Natsu, only for all of them to find Mistgun and Laxus at a standoff.

"MOMMY!?" shouted Kushina from afar in her cage in front of Laxus's throne;

"Kushina!" shouted Erza in worry and relief; however, Mistgun however, was distracted by the group, allowing the thunder mage to shock him with a lightning bolt to the face at Mistgun. (5)

"Mistgun!" shouted Natsu as he rushed to help his guild mate, but came suddenly to a stop when he and Erza stared at the mage's now revealed face;

"Gerard . . .?"(5) muttered Erza, shaken in shock at seeing her former childhood friend alive, causing the girls and Laxus to look at her;

"Oh, a familiar face?" mocked Laxus

"Erza?" questioned Mira as she approached her friend

"What the hell!? Gerard is Mistgun?!" shouted Natsu in disbelief

"Erza, I wanted you, at least, not to see this face," said the Gerard look alike as he turned away from Erza, as if in shame, "I'm not Gerard, I know of him, but he is not me. I'm sorry; I leave the rest to you."

Mistgun/Gerard disappeared without warning afterwards.

Erza was too shocked to see Laxus had sent one of his lightning attacks straight at her, however, he was saved by Juvia as she had pushed Erza out of the way and took the attack for her;

"AAHHHH!" screamed Juvia in pain

"Juvia!?" shouted Cana as she watched the water mage fall to the ground severely hurt and quickly went to her side. Erza had crawled onto her other side and kneeled beside her, helping Cana in helping Juvia sit up;

"Why!? What were you thinking!?" exclaimed Erza, but all of them were shocked to find tears on her eyes as she smiled;

"Juvia just wanted to . . . make you all accept her . . . as a true member of Fairy Tail . . . Juvia loves you guys," was her reply, causing Cana and Mira to shed tears while Erza silently shed hers;

"Of course you're one of us!?" exclaimed Cana as she cried, "There was never any question about that!? You're a brilliant mage of Fairy Tail!?"

"Juvia is glad," murmured Juvia before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Then a cold laughter echoed throughout the church;

"I would rather kill that Phantom girl trash before allowing her to become a member of my guild," boasted Laxus with an arrogant grin.

Suddenly, Erza's and Mirajane's magic energy began to spike as Erza reequipped her black wing armor while Mira transformed into her satan oversoul, Natsu glared angrily at the Master's grandson, fire encircling his fists;

"Laxus, I'm going to make you eat those words," remarked the demonic Mirajane calmly.

"Oh, so the barmaid finally grown a pair of balls to fight," mocked Laxus as he ignored Natsu and glared right at Erza, "And you, you must be glad that the father of your brat has come back," Kushina's eyes widen at the mention of her father's return, "It amuses me of how all of you believe that with his return, I'll be defeated," then he got a dark grin on his face, "Especially when Freed hasn't even begun to use his full power."

All of them glared at the mage, but their eyes, minus Erza's, widen when they felt a dark rise of power coming from the place Naruto was battling.

**~ ' ~**

Back with Naruto;

An overly cut and slightly bleeding Freed was having a hard time against the blonde as he tried to block the blonde's sword attacks, but it was futile as every block he made, wind covering the blade managed to nick him every time. He growled in frustration as his enchantments were rendered useless. For every time he used his enchantments, Naruto slapped his seals onto his enchantments, thus breaking the runes and leaving him in battling Naruto with his sword. That proved to be dangerous as Freed had found out first hand that the blonde was an excellent swordsman as he skillfully parried or blocked most of his attacks and rapidly countered, leading him to the situation he was in;

"_I severely underestimated him,_" thought Freed as he grimaced from a jolt of pain from his ribs, "_I have no choice but to use __**that.**_"

Suddenly Freed sheathed his sword, causing the blonde to raise an eyebrow at him, but his stare was still cold and unforgiving;

"Giving up?" asked the blonde, only for Freed to shake his head;

"No, I realized that in order to beat you, I have to use something forbidden," replied the dark mage as wrote the enchantment for darkness on his chest;

"Yami no Ecriture"

"**Be on your guard brat, I sense demonic energy rising within him,**" warned the Kyuubi as the blonde took on a guarding stance;

"Darkness!"

Suddenly, Freed was engulfed in a pillar of darkness, his magic level rising to greater amounts, causing Gray to look at Freed with some fear.

"Ugghh," groaned Elfman as he began to stir, "What happened . . . All I remember was fighting Freed . . ." said the giant Strauss as he looked up and saw the one person he thought he would never see again;

"Naruto . . .?" muttered Elfman in disbelief, but then his attention was transferred towards Freed when another spike of magic energy was unleashed until it suddenly exploded violently, sending Gray and Elfman back from the backlash while Naruto stood on his ground, staring at the figure that now stood in his opponent's place. A dark-colored demonic-like creature with horns coming out of his head and left eye covered with some scales, causing Naruto to make a face;

"You're one ugly motha-fucker," said the blonde, causing Gray and Elfman to sweat-drop at his words.

If the dark mage was insulted, he didn't show it, but he did, however, blurred out of sight and reappeared in front of Naruto with his right knee embedded deep into Naruto's stomach, managing to lift him off his feet as he let go of his blade and gasped for air at the sudden attack. Freed wasn't done attacking as he delivered a double handed axe strike onto the blonde's back with such force that it made the ground crack on impact, quickly following with a hard kick to the mid-section, sending Naruto crashing into a nearby building at high speeds;

"Naruto!" shouted Gray and Elfman, who barely managed to get back on their feet as they had regained some of their strength back.

"**So he's able to summon upon demon energy. He's very skilled to do that,**" praised the nine tails inside his mind.

"_On whose side are you on fur ball!?_" growled the blonde within his mind as he wiped with his thumb a small drip of blood dripping from his lip while he got up to one knee, only to hear the Kyuubi snort;

"**Don't blame me for your arrogance, your careless idiot,**" shot Kurama back, "**Or did you forget that I can read every thought you think off?**"

Naruto didn't argue back, due to the fox being right. He had disregarded his opponent due to the previous opponents he had fought in recent battles.

"_You're right, I didn't take him seriously from the start,_" admitted Naruto;

"**Then I suggest you stop playing around brat.**"

Sensing Freed appearing right behind him, Naruto quickly made the hand signs for kawamari and substituted with a nearby boulder, which got pulverized by Freed's punch and allowed Nartuo to counter with a strong right hook to the unprotected midsection, only for Naruto to widen his eyes in surprise at feeling the scales were hard enough as armor;

"Fuck," muttered Naruto as Freed delivered a left hook into his face and began pounding at the blonde after he had crashed into the wall. The sound of flesh being pounded echoed through the destroyed halls of the building, but it suddenly came to a stop.

Freed stared at the blonde with shocked eyes as Naruto simply blocked one of Freed's strong punches with one hand, not showing any signs of struggling at all, despite not being able to see the look on his face since his head was looking down, but slowly, Naruto brought his head up, shocking Freed even more with a hint of fear in his eyes as he stared right into the crimson, slitted eyes of Naruto as some red energy began to engulf the blonde completely, taking the form of a hybrid fox with a tail swirling behind him;

"N**o**w yo**u pissed me off,**" growled Naruto as his killer intent rose. Pieces of his skin began to tear off his body as his eyes glowed red with energy;

"**Brat, your body is still too weak to use my power,**" warned Kyuubi, but it fell on deaf ears as the blonde let out a piercing chakra enhanced roar;

From the outside of the building, Gray and Elfman could hear the beating Naruto was receiving at the hands of Freed and were about to rush in and help him out, despite their bodies being in pain, but then they came to a stop when the beatings stopped and a massive killer intent washed over them as a deafening roar erupted from the building, which promptly exploded as Freed was sent sailing courtesy of Naruto.

Elfman and Gray watched as Freed crashed a few feet behind them and turned back towards the building Naruto had crashed into, only to see Naruto walking towards them, engulfed in a red cloak that took shape of a fox, including the outline of the tail and ears, but what sent shivers down their spines was the color of his eyes. Instead of their once blue color they remembered, they were slits with crimson, his whiskers marks had thickened and his nails had grown into claws as his teeth had turned into fangs.

Gray and Elfman had only one thing going through their mind;

Freed was going to go down . . . hard!

Naruto continued to glare at Freed as he continued his advance towards him. Freed crawled out of the debris caused by the building that had fallen on him, staring at the slightly Kyuubified cloaked blonde with a hint of fear, but it was quickly replaced with a glare as Freed got up and rapidly dashed towards the blonde at blinding speeds with his fist cocked for a powerful haymaker. Seeing his opponent coming straight at him, Naruto simply stood still and waited at the last moment, rapidly braking into Freed's defense and delivered a strong left hook into the stomach, creating a shockwave upon impact. Causing Gray and Elfman to over themselves from the debris created by the shockwave.

Naruto quickly reacted by retracting his left fist back and delivered a chakra enhanced punch to Freed's unprotected, gaping face. Freed stumbled back a couple of steps due to the force of the punch and retaliated by delivering a knee strike to the charging blonde's chin, only for Naruto to suddenly halt his charge and easily dodge as he leant back and countered a round shin kick to the midsection, causing Freed to gasp for air for a mere second. Then he tried a second attempt at countering with a backhand fist to the blonde's cheek, only for Naruto unflinchingly, to firmly grasp it by the forearm and applied pressure in his grip. The sound of bones being crushed reached the blonde's ears and gave a counter of his own as he twisted Freed's arm back and dug his claws into the flesh as he gripped onto the shoulder with the other hand, kneeing Freed hard in the midsection multiple times as Freed began to cough a little blood with each knee. With a last knee strike, Naruto released his hold on Freed and sent him back across the bridge.

Then the blonde simply made the hand sign for his signature jutsu;

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Quickly, three clones appeared in a puff of smoke, instantly engaging Freed in combat.

"_He's able to make copies of himself,_" thought the dark mage shockingly as he got up and saw what Naruto had done, but his surprise didn't last long as he began to get pummeled by the clones, despite his efforts to block most of their attacks. Then he saw an opening to take out two of his clones and he took it, however, he wasn't fast enough to bring his guard up to take down the last clone.

The clone appeared underneath Freed in a crouched position with the seal for the haraishin glowing in the clone's palm as he thrust it forward, nailing the dark mage right in the midsection and sending him back a couple of feet away as he skidded on the ground. Freed slowly managed to get up to one knee while holding his abdomen and turned with a glare the clone, who was going through a hand of seals at a rapid pace only for his cheeks to expand after he took a deep breath as he finished the last sequence;

"Suiton:Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

By using the water from the river, the clone created a large dragon made out of water, sending towards his surprised opponent before he puffed out of existence;

"_His clone was able to create a water dragon using the river!_" ranted Freed franticly, "_What the hell is he!?_"

Those were his last thoughts before the water dragon hit him, screaming in pain from the force of the attack. Naruto quickly disappeared in flash of red as he suddenly reappeared ahead of Freed with a spiraling ball that was the size of a watermelon in his right hand.

Freed's eyes widen in fear as he came closer and closer, only to hear Naruto say;

"**It's over, Rasengan!**" and Naruto thrust his attack right into Freed's abdomen, causing Freed to scream in pain as the rasengan grinded away his armor and reached his skin, sending him skidding as the rasengan exploded and shattered his demonic enchantment, returning him to his normal form as he came to stop face down.

**~ ' ~**

Back at the Cathedral, Erza had a smirk on her face when they felt Naruto's continuous rise of power, causing Laxus's eyes widen when he felt the power that Naruto was releasing;

"You shouldn't underestimate Naruto, Laxus," claimed Erza with confidence before she narrowed her eyes angrily at him while preparing for battle, "Especially now when you have angered him by taking our daughter hostage."

Laxus just growled at Erza's taunt;

"Then I'll just have to find out how mad he can get once he sees you pummeled into the ground!" shouted Laxus as he began to power up, lightning dancing around his body.

Without warning, Natsu dashed at Laxus with his fist covered in flames;

"I'm sick of your head-on charges," sneered Laxus as he sent a lightning bolt straight at Natsu, but he quickly dodged to the right and shifted his body in mid air to deliver a flaming kick to the lightning mage's face;

"Karyuu no kagidzume!" shouted Natsu, but the attack proved to be useless as Laxus used his lightning covered forearm to protect himself, shocking Natsu's leg in the process.

Seeing her chance, Mirajane rapidly went behind Laxus's back and tried to deliver a strong right, but Laxus saw it coming as he side stepped to the right and grabbed onto Mira's arm, pulled her towards him and kneed her hard in the stomach, causing Mira to gasp from the sudden lack of air.

"Laxus you bastard!" shouted Cana as she made her cards glow red, preparing to sent out a fire attack at Laxus, but she didn't get the chance to complete her spell as Laxus send Mirajane crashing into her. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Laxus saw Natsu charging at him once more, but this time Laxus met him head on as he delivered a lightning enhanced kick to the dragon slayer's face;

"Uncle Natsu!" cried Kushina as she saw him get pummeled by Laxus as said person grabbed onto Natsu's arm and pulled him to deliver a flurry of punches to the face.

Natsu, however, wasn't one on giving up as he countered with a flame enhanced fist to the face and the two slugged it out until Laxus had enough and shocked Natsu only to use him as a human club as he hoisted the electrified dragon slayer and slammed him into a charging Mirajane from above to the ground, then twisted his body to use Natsu again, only to slam him right into Erza as she came from his side to round kick him in the side;

"Come now, don't make this easy for me," mocked Laxus as he stomped his lighting covered foot right into Natsu's back and kicked him right at Cana.

However, while he was preoccupied with them, he didn't notice a shadow sneaking from one of the broken windows of the cathedra and approaching Kushina's cage silent as possible.

Kushina managed to hear approaching, silent, footsteps and turned to see who it was, only to gasp when she saw Gadjeel looking down at her with indifference, causing her to shake a little. To her surprise though, the iron dragon slayer simply used his strength to spread the bars apart to create a gap big enough for her to escape;

"I don't have all day tomato! Move!" growled Gadjeel, ignoring the glare being sent at him for the tomato comment before she took off running to hide.

Turning his eyes at Laxus, the iron dragon slayer growled hatefully as he saw the unmoving form of Juvia. Although he may not care for those in Fairy Tail much, he does care for Juvia since she was the only one who would approach him during their days in Phantom Lord. She always was there for him and when he asked her why, her answer surprised him greatly;

"_Because like Juvia, you're alone and being alone hurts._" (4)

And since then, although he wouldn't admit out, he did care for her;

"I'm going to kill you bastard!" shouted an enraged Gadjeel as he charged at the unsuspected Laxus, "Tetsuryū no Gō Ken!"

Hearing the shouts coming from behind him, Laxus turned around only to receive hard fist across the face, sending him crashing towards a pillar of the cathedral;

"You're protecting the guild?" asked an astonished Natsu as he shakily got up to his feet;

"Protecting it or destroying it . . . it's my choice," snorted Gajeel, causing the fire dragon slayer to snort;

"I thought there wasn't room for two dragons in the sky," grinned Natsu, only for his dragon slayer brother to smirk back;

"Maybe not, but with all this damn thunder around, the sky isn't fit to fly."

"Damn right it is," replied Natsu as he turned his attention back at a groggy Laxus, "I'm going to settle things with you one of these days."

"Settle your differences later," argued Erza as she appeared in the middle then turned back to where Kushina was being held at, only to find the cage empty, causing her to worry greatly, "Where's my daughter?!"

"She's hiding, I busted her out," replied Gajeel, causing Erza to look at him in surprise, "We have to attack now while he's still out of it!"

Erza quickly regained control as she reequipped her black wing armor to heaven's wheel armor;

"Everyone! Give it all you have!"

Mirajane gathered energy from the surrounding area between her hands, which subsequently take the form of a large, transparent globe and launched it towards Laxus;

"Soul Extinction!"

Then Gajeel and Natsu took a long breath as they both reared their heads back with a seal forming in front of them;

"Karyu no Hoko!"

"Tetsuryu no Uroko!"

A tornado of immense force with sharp shards of metal in it and a large fire ball headed towards Laxus as well.

"Prayer's Fountain!" Cana called out her attack as she placed a card on the ground, summoning forth several beams of water from it, which strike in all directions around Laxus;

And lastly, Erza with her sword held high, she called out her attack;

"Saimitama!" she shouted as she slashed with her sword in a delta formation.

All five attacks hit Laxus on dead center, causing a large explosion to occur upon impact as a large cloud of debris expanded in the aftermath;

"Did we get him?" asked Natsu as he tried to find Laxus throughout the debris

Then, a dark laugh reached their ears, causing them to look in shock as the cloud dispersed and revealed Laxus slightly harmed although his coat and shirt were destroyed upon impact;

"I knew I shouldn't have bothered in trying to bargain with the old fool," said Laxus darkly with a grin on his face, lightning beginning to dance around his body once more, more violently, "I should've relied on this power of mine from the very beginning!"

"_What kind of monster is he!?_" asked Gajeel in his mind, freaked out that Laxus had managed to come out almost unscathed in the onslaught.

"_How!? He should've been severely hurt by our attacks!?_" raged a frantic Erza in her mind as her body shook a little;

"The old man always told me to shut up about this little secret of mine, but now," began the lightning mage as his teeth began to turn into fangs like Natsu's and Gajeel's, greatly shocking all of them, "Now I can show all of you just how especial I truly am," slowly, Laxus reared his head back as he took a gasp of air;

"He's a dragon slayer!" gasped Mirajane in shock

"He's bluffing!" argued Gajeel in denial as he could not believe what he was seeing.

"Impossible!" muttered Natsu

"Rairyuu no . . ."

Erza recognized right away what was about to occur and quickly searched for Kushina, who was standing behind a pillar that was too close for them;

"_If Laxus attacks, Kushina will get caught in the blast!_" thought Titania franticly as she dashed/flew towards her daughter and landed in front of her, pulling her into a tight hug as she used her body as a shield to protect her child;

"Mommy. . ." muttered a scared Kushina, only for Erza to sooth her by rubbing her back softly;

"Shh it's alright baby, mommy's here. Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise," sooth Erza as she heard Laxus shout;

"HOKOU!"

Lightning generated in his mouth and released it in a concentrated, destructive blast. The attack destroyed everything in a wide area in front of him, engulfing everyone in it as they were sent flying back in the attack. After the attack had dispersed, everyone was laying on the ground heavily injured and paralyzed due to the amount of volts their bodies were exposed to, leaving them slightly numb. Kushina, however, was unaffected as Erza had successfully managed to protect her from harm;

"Momma," whispered the little girl as she got out of her mother's arms and kneeled beside her, shaking her mother softly. Erza was barely able to open her eyes, wincing as she tried to move her hand to reach for her daughter's cheek;

"See, told you nothing was going to happen to you," whispered Erza with a soft smile, in hopes of comforting her daughter who now had tears running down her cheeks.

Suddenly though, a shadow overshadowed them, causing Kushina to look up and gasp in fright as she saw Laxus standing over them, a crazed grin plastered on his face;

"So much for the mighty Erza," mocked Laxus, "I guess I should prepare my gift so I can present it to Uzumaki and see his broken face once he sees you!"

Erza slightly turned her head to see Laxus raising his clenched fist, lightning cackling madly as he chanted for his attack;

"Resounding through the air," Erza forcefully willed herself to get on her knees in front of Kushina to envelop her into her arms once more, "The roar of thunder, plunge from the heavens and reap destruction!"

"Erza . ." muttered Natsu as he helplessly looked while Cana was laying beside him unconscious;

"Erza . . . Kushina . . ." gasped Mira as she tried to get up on her feet to try and stop Laxus, but her efforts were in vain.

However, nobody noticed the untouched tri ponged kunai that was embedded into the ground a couple of feet away from them after Kushina had lost her grip on the kunai during Laxus's dragon roar.

"Rejingu Boruto!"

A large bolt of lightning began descend upon them, causing Erza and Kushina to shut their eyes close as they waited for impact;

"DADDY!"

Then, just as Kushina shouted for her father, the kunai reacted to her shout as it began to glow in a bright light.

**~ ' ~**

Freed struggled to even sit up as he clutched his stomach, blood dripping down his face with tattered clothes as he looked back towards where Naruto was, only to find him right in front of him with his left hand chocking him at the neck while his right hand held another rasengan;

"_This is truly the power of a demon! I'm going to be killed!?_" ranted the dark mage in fear as he saw the swirling sphere coming down straight to his face . . . only for the rasengan to be a few inches away from his face. Elfman and Gray were watching a couple of feet away, hoping that the Naruto they knew was still in there somewhere, instead of the merciless person they were seeing at the moment.

Then slowly, the rasengan dispersed along with the cloak, returning Naruto to his normal features as he held a sad look on his face;

"Why do we fight? Between comrades?" questioned Naruto

"Comrades! You're the one who left your so called comrades to begin with!" Free shot back with a glare

"You're right, I did, but they," said Naruto as he turned towards Gray and Elfman, "They are your nakama also, members of the same guild."

"I only have one nakama and that's Laxus!" argued Freed, denying what he truly felt;

"You're lying to yourself, I can see it in your eyes," countered the blonde as he stood up, staring down at Freed with a frown, "It's not a bad thing to cling to one single person, but why are you going to ignore those who are willing to make bonds with you. People are connected to one another."

At the blonde's words, Freed began to recall every conversation he had with various members of the guild. Kindness and acceptance was shown to him. Realizing his mistake, the dark mage placed his hand over his face as he covered the tears that were coming out of his eyes. Once he uncovered his hand, he was surprised to find Naruto's extended hand, "You see, it's when people realize how lonely it is, that they start seeking the acceptance of others."

Slowly, Freed reached out and grasped the hand.

Gray walked up to Naruto as he was helping their once enemy sit up and placed his hand on his shoulder, giving the blonde a welcoming grin, which Naruto returned;

"Welcome back asshole," said the ice mage

"Glad to be back ice stripper," shot the blonde sage back only to be engulfed in a hug by the big guy;

"You came back! You're truly are a man Naruto!" exclaimed Elfman as he hugged the blonde with all his strength, causing Naruto to wince and grunt in pain as he felt his stab wounds throbbing, something that didn't go unnoticed by the two, "Are you alright?"

Naruto didn't respond as fell to one knee and placed his hand on top of his chest;

"_What the hell fox! I thought your chakra wasn't supposed to damage me once it was purged!_" shouted Naruto within his mind as he felt the seven stab wounds throbbing;

The nine tails didn't say anything for a few seconds till he heard the beast growl;

"**Well brat, it seems that when Madara injected you with his chakra, it didn't only tried to corrode you from the inside out, but it also affected my chakra as well,**" explained Kurama.

"_What the fuck! How?!_"

"**Due to his chakra being dark or negative, however you want to call and which quite frankly I don't care, it managed to contaminate mine while I was purging it out of your system, turning a decent portion of my chakra into what it used to be before you fought me for control,**" summarized the nine tails

"_Then I should use bijuu mode as a last resort?_" questioned Naruto as he felt the pain slowly going away.

"**For the time being brat, yes.**"

"I'm fine, just wounds that are still healing," half lied Naruto, not wanting to worry the two, "Don't worry about me, we still-"

Then he suddenly stopped as they felt a large source of power coming from the cathedral, filling the blonde with dread as he also could feel Erza was over there and most likely their daughter as well;

"_Erza! Kushina!_" thought the blonde desperately as he got up to his feet when he felt the familiar tug from one of the Haraishin kunais, "_Hang in there, I'm coming!_"

The blonde's body suddenly began to give a faintg low, surprising Gray and Elfman as they stepped back in case Naruto were to do something, but to their astonishment, the blonde simply as he vanished out of thin air, their guess was that he was heading towards the cathedral.

**~ ' ~**

Back the cathedral;

Those who were still conscious, watched in horror as Laxus's attack rapidly continued to descend upon Erza and her daughter while Laxus laughed madly at his coming victory;

"ERZA!" shouted Natsu as the bolt was a few inches away from them, creating a blinding light as it made contact and caused tremor that shook the whole church.

Once the light had disappeared, all that was remaining was a large crater where Erza and Kushina stood, causing Natsu, Gajeel and Mirajane to gasp in horror at what Laxus had done;

"Yo-You MONSTER!?" shouted Mirajane as tears rolled down her cheeks, her heart clenching at the thought of yet again, having failed to protect those she loved.

Natsu just clenched his eyes shut as he cried for her friend and pounded the ground in his anger.

"Salamander . . ."

Natsu heard Gajeel call him and turned to see him look flabbergasted as he his body shook while shockingly pointed into the deeper part of the church.

Both, Mirajane and Natsu turned to see where the iron dragon slayer was pointing at, only to be flabbergasted themselves at what they saw.

A few feet away from them was Naruto, with his back turned to them, holding an unharmed Erza and Kushina in his arms.

Erza and Kushina still had their eyes closed as they waited for the lightning bolt to hit them, but nothing came.

Slowly, Erza began to realize that she no longer was on her knees but on her feet and also as if something had wrapped itself around the two of them in a protecting manner. Little by little, Erza opened her eyes only to find that she was staring into someone's chest while she tightly held on onto her daughter with her arms still wrapped around her.

"Are you both alright, Erza-chan?"

Erza's eyes widen at the sound of the voice.

Deep, yet familiar. Soft and loving.

Slowly, Erza lifted her head up, only to find a loving smile and love filled blue eyes of Naruto staring at her;

"You came back . . ." muttered Titania as tears began appear on her eyes and began to roll down her cheeks, "You really came back!"

Naruto just watched as the woman he loves slightly turned towards him with their daughter in arms and her face buried on his chest, crying tears of happiness. Placing his cheek upon her head, softly rubbing it against her hair;

"Shh don't cry Erza-chan, I'm here," whispered Naruto softly, consoling her.

"You bastard, don't you ever leave me again!" sobbed Erza, her body shaking with each sob.

Kushina, having heard an unfamiliar voice call her mother's name, slowly opened her eyes as she turned only to see the man she had seen in pictures consoling her mother;

"Da-Daddy?" squeaked Kushina, hoping that it wasn't a dream, hoping that her father was actually real and not some form of cruel joke.

Naruto heard a little voice call his name and slightly looked down to find Kushina being held tightly in Erza's arms while he had both of his arms wrapped around the two protectively.

Smiling softly, he looked at his daughter tenderly;

"Hello Kushina-chan."

The little red head couldn't hold it any longer as she burst into tears and slightly jumped from Erza's arms to reach out with her tiny arms around her father's neck and hug him with all her might;

Kushina didn't say anything as she continued to cry on her father's shoulder, bringing tears upon his eyes and the eyes of the onlookers, -Mirajane, Natsu and Gajeel, although he wouldn't admit it- and hugged the two of them tight;

"Shh, don't cry Kushina-chan, I won't leave you or your mother ever again, I promise," soothed Naruto as he rubbed Erza's back.

"You promise?" whispered Kushina softly as she detached herself from his neck;

"Promise of a lifetime."

Then suddenly, Naruto turned serious as he brought Erza and Kushina closer to him, embracing himself as Laxus's attack connected on his back, causing Naruto to grit his teeth;

"Naruto/Daddy!" cried the both of the red-heads with concern;

"You do best to remember that I'm still here deserter," taunted Laxus with his fist extended out covered in lightning. Naruto slightly turned back with his back slightly smoking through a destroyed vest and looked at Laxus from the corner of his eye, a death glare being sent at him as Naruto broke the embrace and allowed Erza to take a couple of steps back with Kushina still in her arms, "I've been waiting for you!"

Makorov's grandson was ready to pounce the blonde, but was suddenly caught out of breath as he staggered a little, looking at Naruto with wide eyes filled with disbelief . . . . slight fear;

"Laxus . . . Give up now and I'll be merciful," growled the blonde coldly, his eyes showing no emotions, glaring dangerously at the artificial dragon slayer as he shot all of his killer intent at him while slowly entering sage mode.

Meanwhile, Natsu, Mirajane and Gajeel could not help but shake at the amount of power Nartuo was letting off;

"_This is Naruto's power!_" thought the pink haired dragon slayer as he stared at his friend with wide eyes, "_Laxus is sooo boned!_"

"_This is guy is unbelievable!_" thought Gajeel as he stared at Naruto with fear, "_This is not going to be a fight between mages . . . this is going to be a battle between monsters._"

Laxus though, was getting angry at the fact that was being brought to knees by a mere stare;

"_He is a nobody! I'm the strongest of them all,_" rages Laxus as he powered up, electricity crackling around as it destroyed anything where it landed.

Erza shielded Kushina in her arms as she watched some of the bolts coming straight at them, but to their surprise, Naruto simply extended his hand out as the lightning bolt stroke his hand, but it didn't affect Naruto as he stood immobile while the palm of his hand was smoking;

"Don't worry, I won't let any harm come to the two of you," said Naruto softly while his eyes glared angrily at the other blonde.

Erza could feel the energy surrounding him. It felt passive, warm. Then watched him as he began to walk towards Laxus;

"Naruto."

The blonde abruptly stopped and slightly turned back towards Erza, showing her and their daughter his yellow irises, horizontal bar-like pupils, and reddish-orange pigmentation around the eyes;

"You better not lose, you hear me."

"Yea Naruto! Kick his ass!" shouted Natsu, gaining Naruto's attention as he saw the fire dragon slayer get to one knee from his spot with one eye close;

Naruto just smirked and turned serious as he turned his sights back towards Laxus;

"I'll show you! I am the strongest man!?" shouted Laxus madly as he charged at the blonde with his fist covered in lightning, ready to deliver a right hand. Naruto also charged at Laxus with his own fist cocked back to deliver a punch of his own. Everyone watched as the two slowly approached one another and both threw their fists. Naruto successfully tilted his head to the side to avoid the punch, but was slightly nicked as a small cut appeared on his cheek with a small, visible trail of blood sliding down his cheek. Laxus grinned as he also managed to dodge the blonde's punch, but his grin didn't stay long as he suddenly felt a strong force hitting his cheek hard enough that sent him sailing to the side as a trail of blood left his mouth while Naruto stood back in a crouching position with his arm still stretched out

Laxus crashed into some of the pillars of the church till he finally crashed into the wall, causing a large portion of the wall to fall on top of him. He didn't stay down long as Laxus quickly shot up from under the debris, spitting out blood as he fell onto his hands, glaring hatefully at Naruto, only to find some kunais hailed his way and embedded themselves onto the rocks next to him with tags wrapped around the handle. A sizzling sound caused him to widen his eyes in realization before he was engulfed in the explosion and send him hurling further across the cathedral;

"Get up Laxus, your own personal hell is just commencing**,**" said Naruto as he stared down at Laxus with controlled rage in his eyes as he watched Laxus slowly getting up to his hands and knees while glaring angrily at Naruto.

.

.

.

.

.

And cut!

Here's the last part of the whole chapter that everyone has been waiting and I hope that the meeting/entrance of Naruto lived up to everyone's expectations.

And FINALLY . . . . . The reunion between Erza and Naruto occurred, Kushina finally met her father and Naruto tore Laxus a new asshole!

1 It might've been a little off character for Jet to kind of hold a grudge, but I went with how he acted when he and Droy confronted Gajeel at the beginning of the festival arc.

2 The toad smith is my own original character and I couldn't describe the toad I was using, so in case everyone is curious, it was a rocky mountain toad that I used.

3 The new gear Naruto was using is the same one the main character from Ninja Gaiden 3 uses. Just the vest and wrist/forearms.

4 Although Gadjeel looks like a cold bastard, he seems to have a good friendship with Juvia.

5 Gerard and Jellal are names that I'm using by reading Fairy Tail on mangafox . com.

Also, I've been cracking my head to think of a good meeting scene, but I could not come up with anything and neither could my beta reader. So I hope that the meeting between Erza and Naruto met everyone's expectations.

Till next time;

Kyu no Ken.


	7. Chapter 7

(#): A/N at end of chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the mangas or the mangas themselves.

Someone pointed out earlier of how can there be Cana/Naruto interaction but no Kushina/Naruto since Kushina is his daughter, so I went back corrected the mistake. Hope you like the modifications I made.

Early A/N: Before anyone reads this chapter, let me clarify one thing. Some of you were saying how is it possible that someone like Naruto, who's powerful enough to go toe to toe with Madara or Gildarts and win or give Acnologia a run for his money in terms of power be easily get smacked around (well barely, barely till enough is enough) by someone like Freed or Laxus. Here's my take, one; it's my story, I write it how I feel like it. 2) he's still recovering from the stab wounds and just woke up from a 5 month coma (I think its 5 months, don't remember) so yea, I try to give him a little disadvantage otherwise, he's at full goes in, kicks ass and the festival arc is over in the snap of a finger and I don't like that.

So for those who were waiting for this chapter, I know I'm extremely late but life's a bitch (not gonna go into details) but am back writing because I needed something to keep me occupied on my days off and classes won't start till august.

.

. .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

Previously on his Her Shield, His Sword:

_Laxus crashed into some of the pillars of the church till he finally crashed into the wall, causing a large portion of the wall to fall on top of him. He didn't stay down long as Laxus quickly shot up from under the debris, spitting out blood as he fell onto his hands, glaring hatefully at Naruto, only to find some kunais hailed his way and embedded themselves onto the rocks next to him with tags wrapped around the handle. A sizzling sound caused him to widen his eyes in realization before he was engulfed in the explosion and send him hurling further across the cathedral;_

"_Get up Laxus, your own personal hell is just commencing__**,**__" said Naruto as he stared down at Laxus with controlled rage in his eyes as he watched Laxus slowly getting up to his hands and knees while glaring angrily at Naruto._

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

Dragon Slayer vs Jinchuuriki;

His Wrath, Her Savior, Their Union

Once Carla had finished her explanation about Wendy's abilities to the remaining guild members that stayed behind, she along with Levi, were about to leave the guild until a they saw an elderly woman with grayish pink hair entering the guild, asking right away where Makorov was located at.

Levi, not wanting to earn Polyursica's wrath, guided her into the infirmary, only to walk in Wendy as she tried her best to heal the old master only to collapse from exhaustion.

Levi and Carla rushed towards the young girl and placed her on one of the beds as Polyursica analyzed Makarov only to for her to tell Levi that Wendy had managed to barely control the master's condition and that he could still perish at any moment.

Levi, horrified at the news, rushes out of the guild with Carla in tow in order to find Laxus at Polyursica's request.

***Caldia Cathedral***

Laxus recoiled back as Naruto managed to land a straight right into his face and followed with a strong left uppercut to his exposed midsection as Makorov's grandson doubled over in pain only to growl in anger and lash out at his opponent with a lightning enhanced punch only for Naruto to block it with his chakra enhanced hand, although it did little as he still felt the bolts surging through his hand down his arm, numbing it a little before he redirected the punch away from him and countered by quickly forming a rasengan and rammed it into the artificial dragon slayer's stomach, sending spiraling him back as some blood spew out of his mouth only to manage land on his feet a couple of feet away, giving him enough time to charge his magic and send a massive lightning bolt at the blonde.

Naruto, having the feeling back on his hand due to the Kyuubi, the blonde waited for the bolt came within range;

"Dodge it Naruto!" shouted Natsu as he still struggle getting up after the beating he received from Laxus's roar, resorting to relying on Gadjeel as a crutch and vice versa.

Ignoring Natsu's shout, Naruto began to spin rapidly in placed as he called out his technique;

"Kaiten!"

Suddenly, chakra sprouted from Naruto's pores as he protected himself in a dome made of chakra, colliding with Laxus's attack, causing an explosion that lightly shook the cathedral;

"Daddy!" shouted Kushina as she tried to break free from her mother's arms;

"_Please be alright!_" thought Erza worriedly as she held on onto her daughter and watched a cloud of debris hovering where her beloved was standing;

Cana, who was unconscious after Laxus's roar, slowly began to regain consciousness as she moaned while clutching her left side as she slowly tried to sit, however; a pair of hands helped her sit up, causing her to look over her shoulder only to find Mira kneeling behind her with a soft smile;

"I got you Cana-chan," said Mirajane, slowly placing Cana's arm over her shoulder and helped her get to her feet, looking around the cathedral only to find the red head duo standing next Natsu and Gadjeel as they looked at the center of the cathedral in concern while Laxus held a victorious, vicious grin, but what got her attention was that Laxus was actually injured as he bled from the mouth and had some cuts and bruises on his upper body;

"Mira, what happened? Why's Laxus looking all beat up?" question Cana as she grimaced from the sudden pain her ribs caused, giving her light breathing problems.

Mira's smile fell as a look of worry appeared on her face and turned towards the cloud of debris that still lingered on, not revealing a sight of their blonde friend;

"Naruto is kicking Laxus's ass," answered Natsu without taking his eyes of off the battle as he leaned against Gadjeel for support, causing Cana's eyes to widen;

"_Ni-san's here!?_" thought Cana in shock as she too turned her sights back to the battle field as the cloud began to spread, revealing a shadowy figure standing tall, causing the rest to let out sigh of relief as they saw Naruto unharmed, glaring down on Laxus as said person gritted his teeth;

"_How is he able to upstage me in everything I do?!_" raged the master's grandson while Gadjeel stared at Naruto with slight fear;

"_This guy is on another level . . .Laxus was just toying with us but he can't get the upper hand on that brat's father,_" then he noticed the blonde's breathing pattern, making his eyes widen a little more, "_That bastard isn't even breathing hard and the stab wounds that that cat told us about aren't slowing him down one bit. He truly is a monster,_" thought the iron dragon slayer as he swallowed on a dry throat.

"What's the matter deserter!? So much for being a warrior of war if this all you're capable of!" taunted Laxus as he stood up, making Naruto narrow his glare dangerously at him as Laxus's grin grew vicious as his power began to rise dramatically, "Let's see you block judgment Uzumaki!?"

Naruto simply readied himself for any oncoming attack, not noticing the shocked and fearful looks from the rest;

"The attack that defeated Jose in a single blow!?" gasped Gadjeel in fear as he remember the aftermath of that attack, "That attack targets everyone the caster sees as an enemy!?"

Naruto's eyes widen in alarm when he heard that.

"Laxus! Stop!" shouted Erza, but it fell on deft ears as Laxus got ready to release his attack.

Suddenly, one of the doors of the cathedral opened revealing Carla and Levi as they entered the church;

"Stop, Laxus!' shouted Levi with urgency, gaining the attention of everyone in the cathedral;

"_You fool! What are you doing here!?_" thought the iron dragon slayer

"The Master is . . . Your own grandfather," by now her voice began to crack a little as tears began to appear on her eyes, "He's on death's doors, Laxus!?"

The news of the Makorov dying hit them hard;

"The old man's . . . going to die . . . ?" muttered Natsu with wide eyes

"Ji-chan's dy-dying!" exclaimed Kushina as she was held tightly by her mother as Erza herself began to shed tears;

Both, Cana and Mirajane, were too shocked by the news that they felt their bodies going numb.

"So please! Just stop this!? Just go and see him!?" pleaded Levi, hoping to make Laxus come to his senses.

Then little by little, the sound of laughter was heard from Laxus till it became full blown, laughing crazily before he looked at Levi and the rest of her guild mates with a dark grin;

"Well, that suits me just great," announced Laxus, shocking everyone to the core at his cruelty, not noticing Naruto's eyes being shadowed by his bangs as his fist tightened to the point of drawing blood, "Looks like my chances of becoming master went up again!"

"Why you!" growled Gadjeel hatefully along with Natsu, while Erza, Cana and Mirajane glared at the artificial dragon slayer, disgusted by his actions;

"Hahaha! Die Fairy Tail!?" shouted Laxus as he began raising his magic again to launch Fairy's Law, "I'll build you up again from scratch! A guild that'll never lose and make everyone tremble in fear!" his magic reaching his max, "I'll make the ultimate guild!?"

Everyone tensed up when they saw the mad man ready to launch his attack, only for everyone to have their eyes widen in shock as the spell was cancelled when Laxus's head recoiled back as a deep gash suddenly appear across his scarred eye, clutching it with one hand while he used his other one for support. Everyone watching was confused as to what happened;

"What . . . happened?" questioned Cana, as she and Mirajane, confusedly watched Laxus clutch his wounded face with his hand, blood dripping through his fingers;

"I'm lost just as you are," replied Mira, then looked at the dragon slayer duo, "Did you guys attacked Laxus?"

The two of them shook their heads.

"Naruto . . .?"

Erza's voice reached their ears as they looked at the person she had mentioned only to find him his body bladed with his right arm raised high in the air as his hand made a mocking blade motion, however; they suddenly began to feel a light breeze coming off of him as they his hair moving softly, but what unnerved them the most was that they couldn't see his eyes as they were still shadowed by his bangs;

"Naruto?" Erza asked again after placing Kushina on her feet and approached her lover slowly, only to receive silence as the blonde wordlessly made his signature sign for Kage Bunshin and caused plumes of smoke to appear as six copies of the blonde appeared next to him, all of them wearing cold, unreadable looks in their face, either standing or kneeling down, as they stared down at Laxus emotionlessly as he hatefully glared back;

"Erza," spoke the blonde softly, causing said red head to flinch by the sheer coldness of his voice, "Take Kushina with you and leave the cathedral. My clones will carry everyone else and follow you back to the guild."

"No! I'm staying! I'm not leaving you fighting Laxus by yourself," exclaimed Titania only for Laxus to began cackling madly as he stood up with his face still covered by his hand;

"This is too hilarious!" exclaimed Laxus as he removed his hand away and glared with a mad grin at everyone, "You fuckers seem to be forgetting something," pointing to the magical screen that was portrayed in front of his mock throne, "The Hall of Thunder is still active and if by some miracle you maggots defeat me, I still win in the end!"

His laughter echoed throughout the cathedral, until it was abruptly stopped by the blonde as he appeared in front of the lightning magewithin seconds and delivered a strong fist at his face, sending him crashing into a pillar of the church;

"You talk too much," muttered Naruto before he turned towards Erza and the rest, "I'll take care of Laxus, the rest of you take care of the lacrimas," then he turned to one of his clones, "You, grab Kushina and take her back to the guild."

The clone nodded wordlessly and quickly shunshin behind his daughter, gently wrapping an arm around her small frame. Once having her secured in his arm, he made a single hand sign and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Like hell we're going to leave you alone to fight that bastard!" shouted Natsu, finally being able to stand on his own with Gadjeel standing behind him, "We'll take him down together!"

However, Nartuo simply turned towards Natsu with a sharp look;

"Laxus is not the threat here Natsu!" shouted the blonde, causing the pink haired dragon slayer to flinch, "The lacrimas floating outside are and if they explode, the whole town will be destroyed!"

But Natsu wasn't one to back down as easily as he got on Naruto's face, bull fighting as they both tried to push one another with their foreheads;

"You dumbass! We are trying to help you out so you don't injure yourself further by aggravating your wounds even more!" shouted Natsu back; causing the blonde to stiffen a little before he turned away from him while trying to avoid Erza's eyes;

"Wounds?" questioned Titania quietly before she turned to Naruto, "What wounds is he talking about Naruto?" demanded Erza as she glared at him, only for her eyes to widen as her mind flashed her a memory of when Naruto was stabbed with his sword against the mask wearing opponent;

"Some stabs that he suffered from when he was found by the sky dragon slayer," answered the iron dragon slayer, earning a glare from Naruto, confirming Erza's guess, "According to her, those wounds were fatal and haven't healed completely."

"My wounds are healed," lied Naruto, making Erza look at him doubtfully, however, everyone suddenly turned towards the pile of rubble that was far within the cathedral as they saw Laxus slowly rising from the pile, not noticing the Gadjeel's gaze on Naruto;

"_He's lying,_" thought Gadjeel as he began to notice the slightly quicken pattern of his breathing with the slight twitch of his eyes as he held back the pain and the sweat that began to form on his face, "_He may hide it well, but those wounds are affecting him._"

"Go, time's wasting," said the blonde, "I'll take care of him."

Everyone looked like they wanted to protest, especially Erza, but she knew that there were more important matters at hand;

"Let's go," ordered Erza, making the others look at her bewildered, "He's right, the more we stall, the more time we waste in stopping the Hall of Thunder."

Knowing that she was right, Natsu, Mirajane and the rest reluctantly turned to leave the cathedral to different areas in order to take down as many of the lacrimas as possible, leaving Erza and Naruto alone inside the church;

"Naruto."

The blonde simply turned slightly to face her;

"You better not die on me, you hear me," ordered Erza as she tried to muster her most menacing glare, but it failed miserably as Naruto could clearly see the worry in her eyes.

Naruto turned to face and closed the gap between them to kiss her softly, hugging her tightly before he retracted back and tenderly caressed her cheek, trying to ease her worry;

"Don't worry Erza-chan," assured Naruto, "Nothing is going to stop me from coming back to you."

Erza didn't anything as she stared at the blonde worriedly, but quickly steeled her resolve as she jumped and quickly pecked him on the lips before running off towards the exit of the cathedral;

"You must be delusional to think that I'll let you go that easily!?" shouted Laxus as he sent a massive lightning strike at Naruto's direction, trying to obliterate him and Erza in one shot, however, he had forgotten about the blonde's clones as two of them suddenly appeared in front of the blast as they went through a series of hand seals;

"Doton: Doryuuheki!"

Both clones spewed mud from their mouths, creating a large wall of hard earthen material, successfully blocking Laxu's attack, but causing the wall to explode due to the potent of its power, causing Laxus to grit his teeth as he watched the debris surround his opponent till it slowly began to disperse with Naruto's head slightly turned, his gaze fixated on him. A cold, hard gaze glaring straight at him as he watched the blonde make a full turn, facing completely as he rest of the clones blurred at his side;

"Why send them away deserter?" taunted Laxus with a confident grin, "Afraid that they'll see how weak you really are after I defeat you and throw your broken form at Erza's feet!"

Naruto simply stared at his blonde counterpart without showing any reaction to his taunting, but all he did was close his eyes as he gave a smirk before it quickly disappeared when reopened his eyes and dashed towards Laxus at a rapid pace, catching Laxus off guard at the sudden change in his opponent's eyes, but he didn't had time to counter attack as Naruto's fist found itself on his stomach;

"_What the hell is going on!?_" thought Laxus franticly before he slowly looked down at the blonde, confirming his suspicion, "_Their eyes!? They changed!?_"

Crimson eyes with black slits glared, but he wasn't going let something like that intimidate him as he tried to counter with hammer fist down to the blonde's face, but he suddenly felt his attack coming to a halt, only to look above him and find another clone with the same eyes grabbing onto his arm.

Then suddenly, the original Naruto blurred away from Laxus, only for said blonde to look ahead of him in time to receive a vicious kick to the face that sends him flying backward, unaware of two more clones suddenly blurring ahead of him only for one to stop him with knee strike to the back while the other clone kneed Laxus in the stomach, bending over with the force of the blow, but it wasn't enough as the two clones send a barrage of blows (punches, elbows, knee strikes) till one of the clones delivered an uppercut that caused Laxus to be raised of his feet onto a descending clone with a double hammer fist delivered right on Laxu's head, pummeling him right into the ground as he crashed.

However, Laxus wasn't planning to go down that easily as he used his rage to power his magic and caused the clones to jump back with caution as they watched the Master's grandson get back on his feet defiantly;

"You bastard!? I will destroy you!?" exclaimed Laxus only to find five of replicas of his opponent standing before him, but before he could figure out where the sixth one was hiding, the ground beneath him exploded as another replica jumped at him by grabbing onto his face to deliver a thunderous knee to the stomach, causing Laxus to cough blood onto his opponent's hand before he was throwing to the left, where another replica appeared with a rasengan formed on his hand;

"_Oh no you won't!?_" angrily thought Laxus as he managed to turn himself in midair, surprising his opponent as he lightning flashed in front of him and delivered a lightning covered punch through the blonde, believing he had caught the original as the blonde's eyes widen in shock;

"Told you you were weaker than me," boasted Laxus arrogantly, "Now die!?"

But Laxus grin disappeared as he watched the blonde give a weak smirk;

"What's so damn funny!?" demanded Laxus, but all he got for an answer was;

"Boom."

And the clone suddenly lit up before Laxus's eyes as realization sank in and watched as the clone exploded in front of him, sending crashing into one of the few standing pillars of the cathedral. Cursing, he shakily stood up as his right arm was rendered useless due taking the full blast of the explosion. Due to his carelessness, he didn't sense Naruto and the rest of his clones jump him from all sides as they stomped him hard before three blonde blurs jumped and left two clones as they grabbed onto him and held him in place as he struggled to break free;

"Futon: Daitoppa!"

"Katon: Karyu Endan!"

The shouts of the clones caught his attention as he watched the remaining two of the replicas take deep breaths of air before one released a stream of fire that took form of a dragon while the other a strong gust of wind to fuel the fire, making the attack twice as strong.

Sensing the incoming danger, Laxus struggled even more to get free, but the clones' hold on him was unbreakable;

"_I ca-cannot lose like this,_" Makorov's grandson thought with slight fear, but that fear soon began to fuel his anger, "_I will not submit to this bastard!? I refuse to lose to a no name son of a bitch!?_"

And with a mighty roar, Laxus got on his feet, surprising his captors as he threw them towards the oncoming flames, watching as the clones exploded along with the flames before they had a chance to yell. Not wasting any time, Laxus flashed once more behind the unsuspecting clones as they waited for the debris to settle, but they quickly sensed someone behind them as they tried to turn around and protect themselves, but it was too late as Laxus impaled both of them with a make shit halberd made out of lightning, causing the last two clones to explode, leaving Laxus by himself as he searched for his opponent;

"WHERE ARE YOU DESERTER!?" shouted Laxus as his rage continued to fuel him.

Naruto, however, was hiding behind one of the crumbled pillars as he kneeled down and leaned against it while clutching onto his chest in pain as he sweated profusely and coughed some blood onto the ground;

"**You idiot! I told you not to use my chakra and mix it with nature chakra!?**" shouted the nine-tails within his mind, "**But noooo! You had to get pissed off and draw upon my corrupted chakra with your anger, mix the two, especially when your dumbass just woke up from a five month coma.**"

"_I'm aware of my situation fox,_" argued back the blonde mentally he shakily stood up, "_But I must do what it takes to stop Laxus, even if means pushing my body past its current limits._"

Looking out the window, he saw the lightning lacrimas still floating in about the town;

"What's taking them so long?" muttered Naruto before his danger senses kicked in and threw a haraishin kunai to avoid a lightning strike, flashing a couple of feet away of Laxus;

"There you are," mocked Laxus with an arrogant grin while Naruto glared at his opponent.

**~ ' ~**

Meanwhile, after leaving the cathedral, Erza positioned herself at a certain area and used her magic to summon as many swords as possible, but due to her previous fight with Laxus, she was quickly reaching her limit as she dropped to one knee and used her hands for support;

"199 . . . swords . . ." huffed Erza as she tried to regain her breath and looked up to the lacrimas, "Still not enough to take them out *huff huff* at once."

Erza pushed her body in order to stand, but her body was badly injured;

"Come on *huff huff* just a couple more and Mira *huff huff* and everyone else can take care of the rest," muttered Titania as she managed to stand on her feet.

"_Hey! Everyone! Can all of you hear me!?_"

Erza's eyes widen as she recognized the voice;

"_This is an emergency!? Look up at the sky!?_"

"Warren?" muttered Erza

"_Quit just lying around people and get up!? Anyone who's fighting, give it a rest!_"

By now, all of Fairy Tail was looking up to the sky, finally noticing the floating lacrimas;

"_Now Listen up, all of you; we have to take out those things floating in the sky with all the magic we have! Not a single one is to be left! That's Laxus's spell that's about to attack the town!"_

Everyone's eyes widen at that;

"_There's no time to spare! Everyone just do it!_"

"How does Warren know about that the …?" questioned Erza

"_Erza?! Is that you?!_"

Gray's voice was heard and Erza closed her eyes with a small grin;

"I see, you informed him."

"_What about the rest of the girls?!_" another guild member questioned

"_We're all fine, just Mira, Juvia, Erza and I are a little banged up from fighting Laxus,_" answered Cana

"_What?!_" everyone shouted

"_So Laxus has been beaten?_" questioned Macao

"No, Naruto's fighting him as we speak," answered Erza

If the news of the girls confronting Laxus hadn't shocked them, then the news of Naruto's return and fighting the Master's grandson did as they all said the same thing;

"_WHAT?!_"

Those who met the blonde before he left the guild began bickering as to how they were going to kick his ass for leaving the in first place, Natsu joining in the argument as he shouted he had first dibs against him;

"**Hmph, what a bunch of squabbling monkeys.**"

The sound of a rumbling, deep voice made stop their bickering as they wondered whose voice was it.

**~ ' ~**

Back at the cathedral, Naruto had a thick mark as he had heard the squabble between the members of who's going to pummel him as he traded blows with Laxus;

"All of you can fight each other later!? Just take out those lacrimas in the sky or I will kick all of your asses!?" shouted Naruto as he ducked kicked Laxus upward in the chin and followed after him as he wrapped him arms rightly around him before he began to spin at a rapid pace;

"Primary Lotus!"

Driving Laxus hard on the ground head first as Naruto jumped away;

"**No wonder you fit right in, you're like the rest of those insane flesh bags,**" commented Kurama as he saw through Naruto's eyes Laxus getting up as he spat out blood and charged himself with lightning and dashed towards Naruto;

"_Shut your trap furball before I go in there and kick your ass as well!?_" exclaimed the blonde in his mind as he used Laxus's stretched arm to launch himself above his opponent so he could twist in midair and land an axe kick onto Laxus's back;

"**I dare you to come in here and do it fleshy!?**" challenged the nine tails as he rammed his head against the bars.

"_You want a piece of me!?_" challenged Naruto back as he grabbed one of Laxus's legs and swung him like a baseball bat into one of the pillars before slamming him onto the ground once more.

**~ ' ~**

Everyone else developed sweat drops at the backs of their heads as they heard the bickering between the jailor and its container while Erza just smacked her head into her hand;

"He still acts like an idiot," muttered Erza, but you could see the loving smile her lips sported;

"_You heard him!? Let's destroy these things!?_" shouted Gray, causing Erza to concentrate at the task at hand;

"Right! I'll handle the 200 on the north, the rest of you concentrate on the southern side!" ordered Erza.

In the blink of an eye, the Hall of Thunder was destroyed, marveling all of the mages before they were struck by lightning due to the link magic, leaving everyone laid down on the ground from the charge, briefly celebrating their small victory;

"Honestly . . . you people can be so reckless," commented Erza as she looked to sky;

"_It's all up to you now Naruto-kun,_" thought Erza as she closed her eyes.

**~ ' ~**

Back at the cathedral, Laxus just stared at the screen that said the Hall of Thunder was out of order;

"This guild just proved to you that change isn't needed, that they are strong in their own right," commented Naruto, "How can you, a member who doesn't try to be part of that group, hope to be master, Laxus?"

Laxus stayed silent for a couple of minutes before he let out a primal roar as his magic surrounded him, dancing wildly as he glared at the blonde shinobi;

"Through force!" exclaimed the Master's grandson as he focused all of his magic into one attack as he reared his head back as he inhaled a big take of air;

"I see," was all that Naruto said as he closed his eyes and summoned upon the Kyuubi's chakra, surrounding him on the first stage cloak before he jumped back and cupped both of his hands together in front of him and began charging for a bijuudama.

Both of their power kept rising to higher levels with the intention of finishing this battle in one attack.

**~ ' ~**

By now, most of the Fairy Tail members were back at the guild, getting their injuries tended by Polyursica while Erza, along with Kushina, waited at the entrance of the guild, waiting for the blonde's safe return;

"Mommy, I'm worried," whispered Kushina as she clutched onto her mother's dress, but Erza simply caressed her daughter's hair as she turned towards her;

"Don't worry Ku-chan," assured Erza before she turned her attention to the direction of the cathedral, "Your father promised us that he'll return to us and he never breaks his promises."

"He truly is a man!"

Both, Erza and Kushina, turned backwards to find Gray, Elfman and Mirajane approaching them, each covered in bandages;

"He hasn't arrived yet?" questioned Mira, but was saddened when Erza shook her head;

Then suddenly, they felt Laxus's and Naruto's power rise to unimaginable levels;

"Looks like the battle is about to reach its final stage," commented Gray as he slightly shook from the amount of power the two blondes were giving.

Mirajane walked beside Erza as she placed her hand on the red head's shoulder, hoping to ease her worry, but to her surprise, ERza simply turned towards her with a sincere smile on her face before she turned back towards the cathedral's location;

"_Erza . . ._" thought Mira with a small smile as she eyed her red haired friend, "_You haven't smiled like that since Kushina was born._"

**~ ' ~**

Back at the cathedral, both fighters were at the point where both of attacks were complete;

"Rairyuu no . . . . . HOKOU!" shouted Laxus as a magic seal appeared in front of him and launched his attack at Naruto;

"_I will defeat you you!?_" desperately thought Laxus.

Naruto's eyes suddenly shot open as he thrusts his hands forward into the sphere in front of him;

"Bijuudama!"

Both attacks were approaching closer and closer at a fast pace till the collided with a massive boom that shattered the rest of the unbroken windows of the cathedral as the walls began to crack from the sheer pressure of the two attacks as the battled for dominance;

"I shall be the one standing after this!" exclaimed the Master's grandson

Naruto didn't say anything as he simply pushed forward and began to slightly overpower Laxus's dragon roar, causing Laxus to push more magic into his attack, but it seem fruitless as the sphere kept overpowering his roar;

"Wh-What's happening?!" exclaimed Laxus

"You fight for power Laxus and that's not what Fairy Tail is about," calmly explained the blonde as he maintained a fierce gaze upon his opponent, "In Fiary Tail, everyone fight's for one another, band together to overcome greater obstacles!"

He gave another push, making the bijuudama overpower Laxus's roar even more;

"And as much as you hate to admit or trying as much to deny, you're your grandfather's grandson!" exclaimed Naruto, causing Laxus's eyes to widen;

"I don't give a damn about that fossil!? To hell with him!" the lightning mage shouted in denial, "I'm not his grandson! I'm my own person!"

"Bullshit!" Naruto challenged back, "You may act as if you don't care, but your eyes say otherwise!? You may try to hide it, but you're concerned about your grandfather and you feel guilty for his current state!?"

"SHUT UP!" bellowed Laxus in denial

"If defeating will make you see reason, then so be it," muttered Naruto as he shifted his stance to a horse stance with one stretched hand out as he brought his other hand close to him and made a single hand sign, "This battle is over."

As soon as he said those words, the bijuudama shrank in size before it exploded in a massive explosion, causing a pillar of light to shot upward as it destroyed the ceiling of the cathedral, engulfing everything within in a flash of light.

**~ ' ~**

The whole town was caught off guard at the sudden light show, but they passed it off as an event the mages of Fairy Tail were orchestrating, however, the guild knew what was actually happening as the whole guild rushed outside once they saw the light of power shot out of the cathedral;

"It's coming from Caldia Cathedral!"

"Those two are trying to kill each other!"

"I would hate to be in Laxus's shoes right now!"

However, the muttering that was going around was tuned out by Erza as she worried for her lover's safety, but a reassuring hand was placed upon her shoulder and turned back to find Mirajane was comforting her with a soft smile;

"Believe in him Erza," was all that Mira said

Erza simply stared at her friend for a couple of minutes before she wiped away the tears that threatened to fall and turned back towards Mira once more with a smile of her own;

"You're right," replied Titania as she turned back towards the dying light till it disappeared completely.

**~ ' ~**

Once again, back at the cathedral, after the explosion of the attacks had dispersed, the inside of the church looked a battle zone; rubble everywhere, chunks of the walls were missing as the setting sunlight seeped through the holes on the walls, piece of the ceiling were still falling as the landed with a loud thump on the ground.

On the far left corner, a large pile of bricks were piled up on top of someone as there was movement underneath the rubble as someone was trying to dig himself out, managing to do so as a hand shot out and began to pull himself out as a mop of spiky blonde hair surfaced from underneath, coughing as he tried to breath air into his lungs while spitting out some blood in the process;

"**I told you not exert yourself brat,**" growled Kurama at the blonde's stubbornness, but Naruto simply grinned as he managed to pull himself out and sat on his knees, grimacing as he rested his right arm upon his as his body was aching from the pain of the sudden battles he went through;

"I know fox," muttered the blonde with a grin still plastered on his face, "But at least the battle's over."

He heard the Kyuubi snort at his response, but ignored it as he shakily stood up and leaned against the wall, looking around his surroundings till he saw the stilled form of Laxus, letting out a sigh of relief as he saw the blonde's chest slightly go up and down. Bringing his hand up, he made a hand sign and a puff of smoke appeared next to him as a clone came into existence;

"Grab Laxus and take him to the nearest hospital," ordered the blonde and the clone made a half salute as he jumped next to the downed blonde and hoisted him over his shoulders before puffing out in a cloud of smoke along with Makorov's grandson.

"Now for me . . . to go home," muttered Naruto with a smile as he began walking towards the exit of the cathedral while clutching onto his abdomen with his right arm, the light of the setting sun illuminating the path as he walked out of the church as he walked towards Fairy Tail.

**~ ' ~**

Back at the guild, the sun had set and the stars and moon took its place as almost everyone had gone back inside once the light had disappeared, leaving a few of the members accompany Erza and Kushina as they both waited for Naruto's return. As the sun kept setting, more and more members went back inside the guild till Cana, Happy and Mirajane was left alone with Erza and Kushina, both unmoving from their spot till Kushina slowly fell asleep and was picked up by Cana, sleeping soundly in her arms as she watched Erza looked into the streets with her arms crossed under her bust as the lights of the guild barely illuminated the gates of said guild.

"I'm going to take Kushina to bed," said Cana as turned towards the entrance and walked into the guild.

As Mirajane watched Cana take Kushina inside, she began to feel the chilled wind of the night caressing her delicate skin, approached Erza;

"Erza, let's go inside, you need to rest," recommended the barmaid, but Erza just turned slightly towards her;

"I'm alright Mirajane," assured Erza, but Mira could easily tell that Erza was having trouble staying awake due to her injuries still affecting her and the exhaustion of battle;

"I want to wait a little longer."

But as soon as she said that, Erza's vison started to blur and shook her head a little bit to clear it;

"Maybe you're right, I need to rest," said a saddened Titania as Mira grabbed her hand and gently nudged inside the guild with her arm around Erza's shoulders;

"Erza!"

***Auron's Theme from FF-X plays***

Erza and Mira turned back towards Happy, blinking as they both found him pointing towards the streets of Magnolia, rather a shadowy figure that was approaching the guild, but couldn't recognize as to who it was due to the darkness. Then little by little, the guild's light began to illuminate the person once he was within the entrance's reach, causing Erza to slightly tear up.

An injured spiked haired blonde with three whisker marks on his cheeks walks up the steps of the guild till he reaches the final step and stands a couple of steps away from the entrance with his right arm still wrapped around his abdomen, managing to smile as he sees the woman he loves;

"Hello Erza,"greeted Naruto before his body gave out as he suddenly dropped to his knees and continued to collapse onto the ground.

However, he felt a pair of arms wrapping themselves around his head and shoulders as Erza rushed and dropped to her knees to break his fall as she lovingly placed his head on top of her chest, hugging him tightly as her life depended on it as she cried. Naruto willed his arms around Erza's waist, hugging her with all his strength as he too began to shed tears of his own;

"I've come back Erza,"whispered Naruto as he cried, "I've come back to you."

Erza helped Naruto to sit up straight on his knees, allowing her to cup his face with both of her hands as she kissed him with all the love she felt, Naruto's arms never once leaving her waist, even after the kiss was broken and the two just sat there as their foreheads touched one another with small tears still running down their faces;

"Welcome back Naruto-kun," greeted Erza lovingly, "Welcome home."

***Auron's Theme Ends***

Mira simply watched from afar as she wiped away the tears the rolled down her cheeks with a serene smile on her face;

Naruto tried to stand but his body refused to listen, so with Erza's help, he managed to stand on his feet as he wrapped an arm around Erza's shoulders while said red head held him by the waist with one arm while her other hand was gently placed on his abdomen.

Erza's eyes widen slightly when she felt her hand getting wet and gave out a light gasp when she saw her hand being covered in blood;

"You need to see Polyursica immediately!" ordered Erza

"I'm alright Erza, just some small bleeding," argued Naruto, trying to reassure her, but a deathful glare from her sent shivers down his spine, "A-Aye, Erza."

"_Damn! She's gotten scarier!_" thought the blonde with scared look on his face as he watched Erza give him a victorious smile

Mira just giggled at the two.

"Mira, why are you both still doing out-"Cana announced as she peeked out the door only for her words to die at her throat when she saw her brother figure;

"N-Ni-san?" said Cana as she stepped out

Having heard his name, Naruto peeked over Erza's shoulder, finding Cana standing there, her own tears threatening to fall;

"Hey Cana-chan," greeted Naruto with a hearted smile.

Not being able to hold the tears any more, she lunged at the blonde with her arms wide open as she enveloped him in a tight hug as she buried her face on his chest, not noticing the grimacing on Naruto's face due to his injuries being aggravated by the hug, but he held it as he hugged her with his free hand.

Erza, not wanting to be selfish, lets go of Naruto and takes a couple of steps back, watching as her love hugs Cana with both arms as he placed his chin on top of her head;

"There, there Cana-chan," soothed the blonde as he rocked her back and forth.

Cana looked up to him with her eyes still shedding tears. Naruto reaches for her tear stained cheek and softly wiped away one of the tears with guilt look on his face;

"Forgive me for being an idiot," said Naurto softly, but to his astonishment, Cana just smiled and hugged him tighter with a smile on her face;

"You've been forgiven long ago big brother," replied the card user as she detached herself and allowed Erza to have her place back, at his side, "and welcome home."

Then suddenly, Cana turned towards the entrance with her hands over her mouth;

"Everyone!? Naruto's back home!?" shouted Cana.

As soon as those words left her mouth, Naruto watched those he met from three years ago come rushing outside the guild, feeling slightly nervous as he didn't know how the rest would act, but then all of his fears were washed away as he felt Erza's hand clasp his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze, causing him to look at her only to find the same loving eyes she had three years ago when they confessed their love to one another;

"Everything will be alright," mouthed Erza

Naruto gave her a grateful smile before the two of them turned towards the horde that were the guild members as they comically approached him and surrounded him, slapping his back or putting him in headlocks as they ruffled with his hair;

"NARUTO! FIGHT ME!" shouted Natsu as he lunged at the blonde with his fist covered in flames with a big grin plastered on his face;

Naruto watched as Natsu approached him, with a mischievous grin on his face, he waited till Natsu was within reaching distance before he grabbed onto Natsu's arm and used his momentum to swing him around; sending him sailing above the guild into the backyard, watching as Natsu screamed his head off before the sound of splashing was heard;

Everyone laughed at Natsu's misfortune and even more so as he came back sulking in soaking clothes with a pout on his face as he walked between Elfman and the Iron Dragon Slayer, his face breaking into a grin;

"I'll kick your ass one of these days Naruto," proclaimed the fire dragon slayer;

"I'm ready for whenever you are Natsu," challenged the blonde back with a grin of his plastered on his face;

"You're such a man Naruto!" shouted Elfman

"You have a better chance of snuffing yourself out than beating Naruto candle stick," mocked Gray as he just stood there in just his underwear;

"What you say you frost flake!?" shouted Natsu

"Gray your clothes," said Cana nonchalantly while Lucy was a nice shade of red on the background, but her words were ignored as Natsu and Gray started a fight till the whole guild were fighting one another with smiles plastered on their faces.

"Momma …" everyone stopped their little fest when they heard the voice of Kushina and turned towards the entrance where a groggy little red head was being carried by Brisca who was being accompanied by Azlack, rubbing her eyes as she re adjusted them to the light.

Erza walked to Brisca and gently took her daughter back into her arms;

"What's going on momma?" questioned a fully confused, but awakened Kushina as she saw everyone had gathered outside, blocking her view to the streets of Magnolia.

Erza simply smiled as she turned towards her family members and watched as everyone side stepped to either the left or right.

Once everyone had stepped aside, Kushina let out a gasp as she saw her father stand a couple of feet away from her, not noticing her feet touching the ground as Erza placed her down and said mother watched her daughter slowly take her firsts steps till little by little, she sprinted towards her father with tears rolling down her cheeks;

"Daddy!" shouted Kushina with her arms wide open.

Naruto watched his daughter run at him as he dropped to his knees with his arms wide open, getting ready as she jumped into his arms and tackled him, grunting as he held her tightly to his body as he managed to stay on his knees.

Kushina openly cried as she clutched onto her father, crying as she felt him hug her tightly as if his life depended on it, softly placing on the back of her head as she felt him place his cheek on top of her head, crying with her as she heard him sob softly.

Erza, with tears freely rolling down her cheeks, approached her little family and kneeled in front of Naruto, wrapping her arms around her blonde lover with Kushina in between, the three of them crying softly as they finally were reunited as a family.

Mira, Elfman, and Cana along with Gray, Juvia, Lucy, Natsu and Happy with Wendy and surprisingly Carla and Gadjeel with Levi at his side, either had tears building in their eyes or were sniffling as they tried to not to openly cry in front of everyone else. The rest of the gathered members had tears on their eyes as some were sobbing quietly, happy that a small family within their big family was finally reunited as they watched the smallest member of their family finally be reunited her long lost father and their sister finally being with the man she loves.

"There, there little one," soothed Naruto as he and Erza got up to their feet, caressing his daughter's hair softly with his cheek still on top of his daughter's head.

Kushina looked up to her father with eyes full of hope and happiness;

"Daddy, you promise not leave momma and me ever again?" she pleaded with Erza now staring at the blonde;

Naruto just smiled tenderly as he looked both of his loves with eyes full of love;

"I promise Kushina, a promise of a lifetime," vowed Naruto as he leaned down a little and kiss his daughter's forehead.

A teary eyed Natsu couldn't hold it any longer as he grab a piece of clothing and blew his nose loudly;

"What the hell!" shouted Gray, as he had finally managed to find all of his clothing, glared at Natsu before he punched him in the face, "Blow your nose somewhere else flame brain!"

"You're gonna pay for that you walking snow cone!" shouted Natsu as he launched himself at the ice mage and like the domino effect, a fight was renewed as everyone fought one another.

Naruto simply looked up to the sky and saw the stars shining brightly, with one thing running through his mind as he thanked his parents as he turned towards his love with a smile on his face, the two sharing a loving gaze as they held one another with an arm around the waist (Erza) or around the shoulder (Naruto) with Kushina still in their arms;

"I'm finally home," he announced as he leaned forward and captured Erza's lips into a loving kiss as everyone continued with their fighting, the sounds of laughter and cheering echoing through the streets of Magnolia as they celebrated the return of their long lost family member….

.

.

.

.

.

.

And cuuuuuttttt!

Took me a while to do this since I did lose the spark to continue, but finally finished it.

Now as I said months back, this story is coming to an end, although I have been thinking of writing a story as to what happened during those six months Naruto stayed in Fairy Tail till his departure, a prequel if you will.

Also, I want to inform all of you that there's one more chapter to this story and that will be the parade, Laxus's excommunication and a little twist of my own as a special surprise.

Till next time.


	8. Chapter 8

Hello boys and girls!

I just want to say that it has been a pleasure writing this story, but unfortunately, good things must come to an end, but not to worry, I have gotten my lazy, drunken ass to work on a prequel of this story.

Also, I want to say thank you for all the wonderful reviews (even the bad ones, lol needed laugh once in a while) I've gotten on the trajectory of writing this story, it has been a pleasure to entertain all of you and it warms me to know it was well received by almost everyone.

And now, without further interruption, allow to introduce to you, the final chapter of "Her Shield, His Sword."

One more thing; this is the first time I write lemon scene. Haha!

. .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

"_**I promise to come back, even if I have to crawl out of hell to do so." – Naruto Uzumaki Ch. 1**_

. . . . .

. . . .

. . .

. .

.

His promise, Her Devotion;

Their Happiness, Their Vows

Morning had arrived at the guild of Fairy Tail as the whole fiasco had come to an end, notifying the townspeople that the festival's parade was going to take place in one day, due to not being 'ready' as the members were still tending to their wounds and seeing who was able to take part of the festival, mostly to make sure that the Master was out of danger and that Naruto's wounds were healed as he was with Makorov in the infirmary.

Within the guild, most of the members were bandaged as they gathered in the main hall, staring at the door to the infirmary as they waited for Erza to come out, knowing she was there since last night with Naruto with Polyursica, the latter having left the guild early in the morning after tending to his wounds all night. Suddenly, the knob of the door was turned as the door slowly opened, revealing the re-equip mage as she walked with a small smile on her face, looking at all the gathered members as she addressed them;

"Is the master ok?" asked Lucy

"Yea Erza, how's the old man?" followed Natsu, his torso and left shoulder down to his arm covered in bandages with a band aid patch on his left cheek.

"What about Naruto? Have his wounds worsen?" asked Cana this time, bandages wrapped around her torso as well and left arm.

Erza just brought her hand up, signaling everyone to stay silent;

"The Master is out of danger, thanks to Polyursica and Wendy," announced the red head, making everyone else sigh in relief, "Still, his years are certainly growing and if put under too much stress, his condition could worsen again. I'd like for everyone to keep that in mind."

"Heh, the old man's too stubborn to listen to reason," commented Gray with as he leaned back, "And what about Naruto? How's he fairing?"

At the mention of the blonde's name, everyone paid attention towards Erza once more;

"Naruto's condition . . . did worsen a little during his battle with Laxus," said Erza a little downcast, causing the rest to worry, "His wounds wouldn't heal due to the corruptive energy that still lingered in his system, harming him further when Polyursica used her healing magic on him, but thanks to his tenant, the corruptive energy was purged out of his system and slowly the bleeding stopped, his wounds closing little by little, but he should be up and running sometime around tomorrow," at that piece of news, the guild rejoiced as they cheered;

"Naruto's one stubborn guy, he won't stay down for long!" declared Natsu

"He truly is a man!" shouted Elfman, causing his sister to shake her head with a small smile on her face.

"However, he still needs to get plenty of rest due to his body not having completely recovered since he came out of his coma," declared Erza, glaring intently at Gray and Natsu a death glare, "So no challenging him to fights, do I make myself clear?!"

Both mages jumped at one another as they wrapped themselves with their arms, looking at Erza with fear in their eyes;

"L-Loud and cl-clear Erza," stuttered Gray

"A-Aye Er-Erza," stuttered Natsu as well, still shocking Lucy as she couldn't get used to it;

"Natsu's acting like Happy again!"

After that, the mages began conversing as to what they were going to do regarding the festival, unaware of the conversation that was taking place behind the door.

**~ ' ~**

Inside the infirmary, Naruto sat on his bed with his daughter soundly asleep next to him, staring with a smile as he watched her snore softly as she cuddled closer to him, caressing her cheek softly as he gently moved away the strands of hair that covered her face, noticing that she wasn't bothered with the bandages that covered his body down to his left shoulder;

"I was an orphan since the I was born," said Naruto softly while still caressing his daughter's cheek, "Never knew a father's or mother's love till recently, but most importantly, I didn't get a chance for memories, good nor bad," then he leaned down to kiss her forehead without disturbing her, "But you will remember your mother and I, and every day you will know how much we love you."

"You'll be a great father Naruto."

Naruto looked ahead at the source of the voice, across the room was Master Makorov, laying down on his own bed before he sat up and looked directly into the blonde;

"Thanks old man," said the blonde before turned slightly serious, "What's going to happen to Laxus now?"

Makorov closed his eyes as he let out a tired sigh, for once looking vulnerable as his years began to show;

"He violated the very foundations that Fairy Tail were built upon, that is something that I cannot forgive," then he opened his eyes and Naruto was able to see the sadness that was in his eyes, "But as his grandfather, it's not easy for me for what I'm about to do."

Naruto decided to stay quiet, however, he wasn't prepared for the master's next proclamation;

"After the festival is over, I'm going to resign as master," said Makorov, shocking the blonde as his eyes went wide;

"Re-Resign?! Why, old man?!" questioned/demanded Naruto.

"As his grandfather, his actions fall under my responsibility," replied the old man as he closed his eyes again, "If I had paid more attention to him, I would've been able to steer him away from the path he took years ago."

Naruto stayed quiet as he listened to the old master, recalling when he used to believe that he was at fault for allowing to steer Sasuke down the dark path;

"**But Laxus isn't Sasuke,**" said Kurama within Naruto's mind, making said blonde nod his head.

"Old man . . . If you're going to do what I think you're, then you shouldn't resign as master," said the blonde, causing the master to look at him bewildered, "At the last moments of my battle against your grandson, I could see the regret in his eyes and with you resigning as master, it would seem more punishable to him knowing that he was responsible of you forsaking your position as master."

Makorov stayed silent at Naruto's argument before he looked directly into the blonde's eyes, seriousness etched all over his face;

"Naruto… I want you to become Fairy Tail's fourth master," said the master in all seriousness, causing Naruto's and Kurama's, within Naruto's mind, eyes to widen;

"Ar-Are you out of damn senile mind!?" almost shouted the blonde, trying his best not to wake up his daughter.

"You're the only person I know that I can trust this guild to," reasoned Makorov, "I cannot ask anyone else due to someone like Erza or Gray being still young and despite having the experience, they lack the requirements to be master of this guild," closing his eyes, "However, you, on the other hand, have the qualities to lead, to inspire and have the experience beyond your years to be a great leader," then he opened his eyes once more, "I know you feel that you're unworthy due to what you did three years ago, but don't let that weight down you, for you know very well that everyone will support you if you were to become master."

Naruto stayed quiet as he contemplated on what Makorov told him, looking down at his daughter, oblivious as to what was going on, however, Naruto made his decision regarding the master's request as he looked back to the master;

"I'm honored that you would want me to become the next master, but…" said Naruto as he looked down at Kushina again with a small smile on his face, "Right now, my only focus is being a father and being part of my little girl's life."

Makorov looked surprised by the blonde when he denied the request, but smiled proudly when he heard the blonde's reason;

"_You would make a great master one day Naruto,_" thought Makorov as he watched the young man in front of him;

"However, there's something I want from you master," suddenly said Naruto, causing the master's eyebrow to rise curiously.

"What would that be m'boy?" asked the old master

"I'm going to ask Erza to marry me," said Naruto, causing the old man's eyes to widen, "And I want your blessing."

Makorov just sat there stooped, then he burst out laughing before calming down a bit, giving Naruto one the biggest grins he could mustered;

"M'boy, while I'm honored for you to ask me of that, you don't need my blessing," said Makorov, "But you have my blessing nonetheless," then the old man's eyes got deathly serious, "But if you were hurt Erza again, I will personally make sure you are brought down . . . hard!"

Naruto simply glared at the old man;

"I rather die first then to see Erza cry cause of me again," claimed Naruto, causing Makorov to smile again;

"Good, now, go outside and wait with the rest of them goofs while I talk to my grandson," ordered the old master as he sensed his grandson approaching the guild;

Naruto nodded as he turned to his daughter and gently nudged, causing said red head to yawn cutely as she slowly opened her eyes;

"Daddy?" said Kushina softly as she rubbed the drowsiness out of her eyes

"Come on darling, let's go see mommy," said Naruto softly as he scooped his daughter into his arms and let Kushina use his shoulder as a pillow, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck as he walked towards the door and turned towards the old master with his hand on the knob, both nodding their heads at one another before the blonde opened the door and walked out of the infirmary.

**~ ' ~**

Outside the infirmary, everyone was having a merry time till they heard heavy footsteps coming from the guild's entrance, gaining everyone's attention only to gasp in surprise when it was Laxus himself that walked into the guild, angering those who held a grudge against the Master's grandson for causing the guild to fight one another;

"What the hell you're doing here?!"

"You got some nerve showing your face around here after what you did!"

"Damn right!"

"You have no shame wanting to see the master after what you did!"

Laxus just stood there, emotionless without his trademark arrogant smirk as he stared at everyone else;

"All of you! That's enough!"

Everyone stopped their shouting and turned back towards the infirmary, finding Naruto stepping out with Kushina, wide awake with slight fear in her eyes once she saw Laxus, in his arms, holding an emotionless look himself as he and Laxus stared at one another. Then Naruto looked for Erza, motioning her to get Kushina once he found her. Erza silently walked up towards the blonde and gently scooped their daughter into her arms protectively, standing behind Naruto as she slightly glared at Laxus, the memory of what Laxus did at the cathedral, vividly, still fresh in her mind.

"But Naruto …" began Jet, but only to hold his breath as Naruto shot him one of his glares before the blonde turned back to stare right into Laxus's eyes.

Both members began walking towards each other till the two of them were approximately face to face, never once break eye contact.

Laxus's eyes twitched a little as he began to glare at Naruto, then suddenly, the two of them felt a slight rise of magic energy around them and turned their heads to the right, watching as the main members such as Mira and Elfman with their arms transformed into their takeover forms, Gray with ice magic surrounding his hands, Azlack and Brisca with their gun magic ready to shoot, ready to attack Laxus if he were to make the first move. Then they turned to the left and saw Erza with swords in hand with Kushina hiding behind Wendy, both of them shaking a little. Those standing next to Erza ready to intervene were Natsu with flames dancing around his fists, Gadjeel with his arms formed into iron clubs. Surprisingly, Lucy with whip in hand accompanied by Loke. The two of them then slowly turned their heads to face one another, neither one saying a word till Naruto sidestepped to the side;

"The old man is waiting for you," said the blonde, gaining surprised looks from everyone else as he gestured towards the door, "The infirmary is over there."

Laxus, who had a look of surprise himself, walked past the other blonde towards the door and reached out for the knob;

"You know Laxus, you and I are fortunate people," said Naruto out of the blue, causing Laxus to turned back and look at Naruto over his shoulder, "Right now, we are surrounded by folks that love, trust and protect one another like any family would, protect each other from people like you and I," Naruto turns around looking directly into Laxus's eyes, "I can tell that even though some may have forgiven me, they hold resentment towards me for I did to Erza, because even though she's the strictest, they love her nonetheless because to them, she is their sister and like any other family, they don't want to see their sister sad or crying or see the man they consider a father and grandfather hurt," says the blonde as he looked around the guild, looking into the eyes of each member, seeing the looks of surprise in their eyes as he spoke before his eyes landed on Erza and Kushina before looking at Laxus once more, "I don't know about you Laxus, but to me, that is the strength of Fairy Tail, that's what makes this place home for everyone here and I'm going to do whatever it takes to earn their forgiveness," he finishes, looking straight at Erza with soft eyes.

Laxus didn't say a word for a couple of seconds before he lowered his head and quietly walked into the room, leaving Naruto alone with the rest of Fairy Tail as he watched the door close, not noticing Macao walking towards the blonde, gaining said blonde's attention as Macao placed his hand on the blonde's shoulder;

"Sometimes, you're really stupid you know that," said Macao, causing the blonde's eyebrow to rise up, only to for him to feel an arm drape around his neck;

"I second that," agreed Wakaba

Naruto looked lost till he heard soft footsteps, looking ahead as he watched Mirajane approaching him with a soft smile;

"You don't have to do anything to earn our forgiveness Naruto-kun, because we forgave you long ago," said Mirajane

Then Natsu and Gray appeared by her sides;

"Yea, it sucked that you left us with," said Natsu without tact, earning a hit in the head courtesy of Gray;

"But we understood why you did it and did our best to take care of Erza and Kushina till you returned home," said Gray, ignoring Natsu's glare as he nursed the lump at the back of his head.

Naruto just stared at all of them with a surprised look;

"A family loves and protects one another Naruto-kun, that is true," said Erza after re-equipping her swords up, staring at the blonde with tender eyes, "But you forgot one thing, a family is also willing to forgive those they love dearly."

Naruto found himself at loss of words, not knowing what to say as he bowed his head with a soft smile;

"Thank you everyone."

"Now let's not get all emotional!" exclaimed Wakaba, "We still have to worry about the festival!"

Everyone else cheered at that and went back to work. Naruto simply watched as everyone went to work till he felt Erza nudging him to come closer, whispering something into his ear causing his eyes to widen and wrap his arms around her without warning.

Erza simply wrapped her arms around her lover's neck and looked back towards the bar where Mirajane was serving Kushina something to drink;

"Mira! Watch over Kushina, we'll be right back!" shouted Erza and did not wait for a response as her and Naruto vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving a confused Kushina;

"Aunty Mira, where did momma and daddy go?" questioned the little red head.

Mirajane having a hunch as to exactly what Erza was planning, but she couldn't tell Kushina that;

"They went to catch up Kushi-chan," said Mira, causing Kushina to be more confused, making Mira giggle at the little girls look.

**~ ' ~**

***Beware: Lemon Warning***

Inside Erza's dorm, a cloud of smoke suddenly appeared, revealing Erza, long having discarded her armor, with Naruto still having his arms wrapped around her waist while Erza never loosened her hold around her lover's neck, both their foreheads touching one another as they could feel their breathing tickling each other's skin, neither one saying a word as they held one another;

"I missed you Erza," whispered Naruto softly, pulling his queen closer to him, placing his head on top of her head, feeling her tightening the hug as she rested her head on the blonde's chest;

"I missed you too Naruto-kun," Erza whispered back before looking up to stare into his eyes, "Now shut up and kiss me."

Naruto didn't argue as he leaned down and claimed her lips, Erza's arms leaving the blonde's waist as they moved up to the back of his head, passing her fingers through his soft, golden locks as she deepened the kiss, both of them letting out soft moans as Naruto's hands began roaming around Erza's back through her blouse, slowly finding themselves lifting it up as they went underneath her blouse, sending shivers through her spine as she began to feel her legs beginning to tremble and unconsciously guided the two of them backwards, till the two of them fell backwards (or frontward in Naruto's case) as they landed on the soft mattress that was Erza's bed with Naruto landing on top of Erza.

The two of them locked eyes once more, both of them seeing the love they held one another as clear as the sky itself;

"Make love to me Naruto," said/pleaded Erza softly.

Naruto's eyes widen a little bit before they softened and claimed Erza's lips once more, allowing Erza to have her hands roam across his torso, slowly unbuttoning the shirt he was given in the infirmary, letting it hang lazily after the last button was unbuttoned. Naruto didn't stop the kiss while Erza helped him take off the shirt, but he did stop it when she felt her slowly pushing to the side, making lay on his back with Erza straddling him, his hands moving on their own as they traced her smooth legs, slowly lifting up her skirt as he drew closer and closer to her waist. Wasting no time, Naruto reached for the zipper of her skirt and unzipped it, loosening her dress as it slowly began to slide off her slim waist. Erza pinned Naruto as she now claimed his lips once more, making her skirt slide off completely off of her, showing her gorgeous behind covered by a tight black, laced panty and blouse.

Naruto was about to deepen the kiss once more but Titania pulled away in the last minute, leaving a confused blonde to have his confusion answered when Erza unloosen his belt and unbuttoned his pants before tugging at them to pull them down. Naruto helped her as he wiggled about as his pants came off till she successfully took them off and threw them over her head. Naruto just laid there as he now watched his Titania unbuttoned her own blouse and throw it to the side, revealing her massive bust being held a color matching lace bra.

Erza looked down as her hands began to trace the bandages around his torso, tracing each spot where he got stabbed by Madara. Her hands trailing up to his chest, tracing the last stab wounds before leaning down as she did so and planted soft kisses on the blonde's bare collar bone, sending shivers throughout his body with each tap from her soft lips.

Slowly, the blonde snaked his arms around his red head love, reaching behind her towards the strap of her bra while Erza continued to plant kisses on him till she claimed his lips once more, unaware that Naruto had unhooked her bra and slid off her shoulders on top of Naruto's abdomen. Without looking nor breaking the kiss, Erza raised one hand at a time, freeing herself completely as Naruto discarded the bra away.

And without warning, Naruto grabbed onto Erza and turned on the bed, pinning his red haired queen once more, the kiss becoming more intense, Naruto's hand tracing Erza's left side as it traveled down her stomach, past her waist line, barely lifting her black panty line to allow his hand to sneak in, causing Titania to moan softly through the kiss as she slowly rocked her hips a little bit after feeling her lover's hand reaching inside her panties, causing her to spread her legs a little to give him more access to her womanhood as he slowly began to massage her clit, softly flicking it with his middle finger, causing Erza let out a louder moan in his mouth as she now rocked her hips a little harder against his hand.

Naruto broke the kiss as he slowly began to trail her jaw line with his kisses down her neck, nibbling and kissing as Erza turned her head to the side, her eyes closed as she grabbed onto her sheets;

"Naruto…" moaned Erza as she felt herself growing hotter and hotter, more so when she felt her lover's member growing as it rubbed against her thigh.

"Naruto… stop teasing…" groaned Erza when she felt her clit growing more delicate as her womanhood became moistened as Naruto repeatedly her pussy and breasts. Nibbling, kissing and licking her right nipple while her left breast was massaged by the blonde's free hand, making Erza take a big gasp of breath as she arched her head back, her eyes wide open at the sudden pleasure coursing throughout her body, overloading her senses as she remembered the last time two of them last made love.

Then, she let out a sigh of disapproval when she no longer felt Naruto's finger caressing her, only let out a gasp of surprise when she felt Naruto spread her legs a little more to kneel in between them, slowly pulling down her wet panties as he gently lifted Erza to pull them down. Once they were off, Naruto threw them to the side before he climbed on top of Erza, allowing her to reach for his briefs to pull them down without haste, her need of him having her growing inside her like a raging fire.

Once fully nude, the two of them stared into each other's eyes as Erza spread her legs and wrapped her arms around her lover, feeling Naruto's arm sneak underneath her, holding her gently as he used his other arm for support and to caress her cheek, neither one of them saying a word as Naruto placed the tip of his cock at her entrance, the heat he felt radiating from Erza's wet vagina clouded his senses a little, but managed to maintain control of his urges, despite Erza's attempts to force him inside her as she rocked her hips against the tip of the blonde's dick between, making it grind between her lips.

The teasing became a little too much for Erza as she used one hand to grip onto the sheets, but Naruto clasps her hand with his own, looking directly into his love's eyes, slowly going inside her, making Erza let out soft gasps at being filled once more after three years on the night Kushina was conceived.

Erza tilted her head back when she felt Naruto's cock sheathed halfway within her, groaning in pleasure when she felt the rest of his member sliding deep inside her;

"Oh my god!" gasped Erza softly, gripping her lover's hand tightly, but Naruto didn't seem to faze at the strength of her grip.

Once Erza had regained her breath, the two of them stared into each other's eyes once again, never breaking contact once Naruto began to slowly thrust inside her, making Titania to let out soft moans as her lover kept thrusting inside her, the pace picking up little by little as Erza's moans became louder and louder, but Naruto silenced her when he claimed her lips again, hungrily devouring them as Erza return the gesture with rigor while Naruto quicken the pace more and more, causing Erza to moan louder within the kiss, knowing she was close to climax when she felt her pussy tightening. At the edge of climax, Erza clutched onto the blonde and bit his shoulder as she came all over his member, trembling at the sheer rush of pleasure her body went through. Once she calmed down a little, without warning, Erza pushed Naruto off of her on to his back and pinned him as she used his shoulders for support.

Naruto didn't get a chance to say a word as Erza reclaimed his lips with such desire that he never felt his member sliding inside his red haired lover once more nor her moving her hips back and forth at a quicken pace, her nails digging onto his while Naruto held a tight grip onto her waist, grunts and moans of pain echoing through dark, quiet room as the two continued to make love.

Breaking the kiss, Erza tilted back, causing her to let out a big gasp of air when she felt Naruto's cock hit a sensitive spot within her when he rocked his hips against hers, rocking her hips even faster to meet his, fulfilling the hunger of their lust as she once more, began to feel the walls of her pussy tightening around Naruto's dick, making him grunt even louder at the feel of ecstasy;

"Erza … I'm about to cum," grunted Naruto, sweat pouring down his brow and covering his body, despite being absorbed by the bandages.

"Cum inside me love," gasped Erza as she felt herself being close to the edge before she let out a loud scream of pleasure as she orgasm once more;

"Ahhhhh!" yelled Naruto as he couldn't hold it anymore and shot his load deep inside Erza, filling her up as Erza's body shook from her own orgasm and took pleasure at the feel of her love's seed covering her womb till her body collapsed into the arms of her lover, who gladly caught her as he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close to his body, both of them gasping for air as the two lay there, clutching onto each other as they stares at one another with love stricken eyes;

"I'm glad to have you back in my life Naruto-kun," said Erza softly as she used her lover's chest as a pillow;

"You have no idea how much I missed you Erza," whispered Naruto back, hugging Erza a little tighter, "Every night I would go to sleep, wondering if you ever thought of me, if I still lingered in your heart or that you had moved on and found someone else."

Erza simply placed her hand on his cheek, causing all of the anguish he felt to disappear right away;

"I'm not going anywhere love, I promised didn't I?" reassured Titania, "I promised you that I would be here, waiting for you," kissing his bandaged covered chest, right where the heart is, "And it was a promise of a lifetime."

Naruto just stared at her with amazement, a soft smile adorning his lips;

"I love you Erza and I promise never to leave you again," swore the blonde, kissing Erza's forehead in the process

"Good," said Erza with a small smirk before her lips adorned a loving smile, "And I love you too, Naruto-kun."

The two of them laid there as they stared at one another, in each other's arms, slowly drifting off to sleep with content smiles on their faces as the two finally let sleep claim them, finally being able to slumber peacefully as the void of loneliness that lingered in their hearts was finally filled.

**~ ' ~**

Later that day, the Fantasia festival was in full effect, the people of Magnolia town were cheering and enjoying the parade that was organized by Fairy Tail.

The first float had cards floating around, glowing in magic surrounded in hearts as Cana used her magic to guide them in the air. With her were Macao and Wakaba, using their magic in the background as Macao used his fire magic along with Wakaba's to use a combination choreography as it mixed and exploded into hearts before being pierced by a make shift arrow, making the heart explode into fireworks

The next float was a fruit-styled float had dancers ringed around them as a dressed up Droy, Jet, Max and Alzack were dressed as fruits. The next float it followed was a heart-styled float with Bisca, Lucy and Levi wearing short dresses and waving fans around cheerleader style.

Following close behind was Elfman in full beast mode parading in scary looking, with a flower on top, waving at everyone he passed. The flower on top of the make shift tower begins to glow, revealing his sister, Mirajane, smiling happily as she waved at everyone in the crowd before using her transformation magic to shape shift into a giant snake, creeping out most of her fanatics and crushing the float along with Elfman in the process.

Next was Gray and Juvia dressed as a blue king and queen with an ice castle, combining their magic as they create a standing right behind them on their own float, the guilds name showing proudly on top of the ring as they pretending to dance in bawl underneath said iced ring.

After Mira, it was Erza's float, dressed in something she called her 'demonstration armor' which was basically a white and red dress with knight markings on it, a white breastplate, white and yellow gauntlets and allowed her to be capable to spin various swords around her in a circle, then without notice, the crowd got a special treat when they saw Erza's float beginning to shape shift, an astral form of a giant fox with nine tails appeared, with all nine tips of its tails nearing its mouth, wide open as it revealed Erza still dancing. Behind her, Naruto appeared with swords in hand, covered in his kyuubi sage mode with swords in hands. Erza used her magic to levitate her swords higher up, surrounding a giant rasengan, unknowingly sort of resembling a one of Naruto's rasen-shuriken. Then Erza re-equipped her outfit to one of those Arabic belly dancing outfits, with two long curved swords in each hand, her long hair fiery hair put into four long ponytails as the two began to play sword fighting, dancing around as they playfully clashed their swords with smiles on their faces, shocking everyone as Naruto suddenly stole a kiss from Erza, causing her to freeze up a little bit before giving a playful smirk of their own, resuming their dance.

Next was Master Makarov's float where he stood atop what seemed to be a large red hat wearing green pants, a yellow shirt with purple sleeves, a pink tie, red gloves, a long yellow tail and a red hat with pointy yellow ears. He was dancing around with a grin on his face while Kushina mimicked his dance wearing a smaller version of his outfit.

Finally Natsu was at the rear of the parade with crimson flames flickering behind him as he walked with Happy sitting the small green creatures that were pulling the mobile torches. Natsu turned his head up to the sky and lobbed a few fireballs into the darkness, letting them explode life fireworks, causing everyone to cheer even more;

"It's Fantasia!"

"Awesome parade!"

"It's the girls from the Miss Fairy Tail Contest!"

"So cute!"

"They're fairies alright!"

"And what's that? It's a castle of ice!"

"There's water gushing all around it!"

"Over there! It's Titania!"

"Check out those swords!"

"Look! Erza's float changed into a giant fox!"

"What a beautiful display by using that magic sphere with Titania's swords!"

"Wasn't that blonde in Fairy Tail a few years ago? You know, the one dubbed the Maelstrom of Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah! I think I remember him!"

"Oh my god! That blonde guy just kissed Titania!"

"I would have thought she'd have stabbed him by now."

"Clearly not."

"It's the Master! The Master is here!"

"Look! Erza's kid is dancing with the master!"

"Titania's daughter looks so cute in that outfit!"

"What kind of getup is that?"

"It does suit them both."

All of a sudden, Makarov stopped dancing, his face adorning with a serious and triumphant look he put his hand up towards the sky, pointed one finger up and his thumb to the side before twisting his arm round so the back of his hand was visible with Kushina following suit as she landed on her ji-chan's shoulders, surprising Laxus as he watched the parade from behind the crowds, but his widen even more as he watched all the members in the parade followed the master's example with smirks, smiles and grins.

All except two.

Laxus watched as Erza and Naruto stood side by side with Naruto having his left arm around Erza's waist, looking straight at him due to Naruto's ability to sense people. Both holding expressionless till they both smiled or grinned and raised their own hands into the air, causing Laxus not being able to hold it any longer as tears began to spill down his eyes, regret filling his heart at the actions he had taken, but smiled none the less;

"Gramps, Naruto, two of you were right," muttered Laxus with tears rolling his eyes, "Fairy Tail isn't just a Guild; it's a way of life, of freedom and family," closing his eyes, he turned towards the alley before looking directly at Naruto once more, "I'll leave them in your care, Naruto."

And with that, Laxus left quietly as the parade went its course.

**~ ' ~**

Naruto stood with Erza at his side, watching as Laxus left, wishing him the best before he turned his sights towards Erza, deciding that now it would be the best time;

"Erza," began Naruto gaining her attention, "Three years ago, on my birthday, I lost my home, my people and my loved ones. I was blinded by rage and pain that I had let left them," closing his eyes, "To the point that I missed what was important to me," opening his eyes, staring directly into hers, "More important than my dream to become Hokage and that was you," taking a pause as he gathered his thoughts, not once Erza interrupting him, "But, also, it was three years ago when I came with a decision that would've changed my life forever, a change that would've given me the one thing I desired the most in my entire life and that was having a family with you, had I not left" Erza's eyes widen at this;

"_Is he …?!_" questioned Erza within her mind, feelingt her heart pounding within her chest.

Then her eyes widen in shock and surprise as he watched Naruto go down to one knee while holding onto her hand, looking directly into her eyes, showing her all the emotions he felt.

His fears, his insecurities, his desire, his love.

"Erza, you have brought me much happiness since we met, even now when I felt that I wasn't worthy of it, but you showed me otherwise," said Naruto as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small box, opening it and revealing its content to Erza, causing her to gasp and slightly tear up when she a ring within the box, "Not only that, but you have given me much more when you after telling me about our daughter and now there's only thing I want to ask you to make our family complete," by now tears of happiness began to roll down her eyes, "Erza Scarlet, will you marry me?"

No longer being able to hold it, she dropped to her knees and pulled him into a kiss, both of them ignoring the cheers of the other guild members and the town folk, for now their world revolved around them.

Breaking the kiss, Erza stared into Naruto's eyes with the brightest of smiles;

"Yes, I'll marry you."

Naruto smiled broadly as he took the ring and gently slid it on her finger, kissing her once the ring was in place, the cheering becoming louder, but were overshadowed by the members of Fairy Tail as they clapped and cheered with tears on their eyes.

Naruto broke the kiss and quickly both turned backwards, towards the master as he comically cried onto his forearm, tears flowing like a fountain while Kushina patted his back while wiping her eyes with a tissue;

"Old man! Marry us!"

Sniffling, the old master nodded his head with mucus and tears rolling down his face comically before he shook his head and in a blink of an eye, he changed into his wardrobe as master of Fairy Tail, a serious look adorning his face as he addressed the town and his children;

"My children and beloved people of Magnolia, today we are gathered here tonight to unite these two young loves in holy matrimony," announced the Master, watching as Erza and Naruto held each other by the hands and stared deeply into their eyes, "Erza Scarlet, do you to take, Naruto Uzumaki, as your husband through sickness and health till death do you apart?"

"I do," replied Erza without hesitation

Makorov nodded his head, holding the tears as he turned towards the blonde;

"Naruto Uzumaki, do you take, Erza Scarlet, as your wife through sickness and health till death do you apart?"

"I do," replied Naruto with confidence

"If there's anyone who opposes this unity, speak now or forever hold your peace."

No one said a word.

"Very well," said Makorov a he placed his hands behind his back, "As master, I am glad the two of you found happiness after the trials the two of you have endured and wish you the best, but above else, I wish you two all the happiness in the world," then he raised his arms into the air with a wide grin, "And now! I pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice as he leaned forward and kissed his wife, causing loud cheers throughout the whole town as they celebrated for the newlyweds.

And so, the Fantasia festival went underway once more with much more vigor as they also celebrated the union.

As the night went on, the parade was coming to an end, Naruto couldn't help but grin as Erza slid back into his chest and smiled over her shoulder at him, Kushina surprising them both as she jumped on her daddy's shoulders and held on onto his locks. The three of them looking up to the skies, watching the stars shine brightly as Naruto and Erza looked forward to what the future would bring, facing it together as a family….

.

.

.

.

.

.

Annnnnd The End!

Well . . . this is the last chapter for this story of mine. I want to thank everyone who took their time to read the story and waited patiently for the updates and also for all the reviews I've received (good or bad).

I'm currently working on a prequel for "Her Shield, His Sword" so be sure to look for "Her Shield, His Sword: The Beginning"

Other than that, I wish everyone a good day and thank you once again.

Kyu no Ken.


End file.
